Immutable Laws or Probabilities?

I am deeply interested in a question posed in class today: Is the universe governed by immutable laws or does it operate freely based on probabilities and tendencies?
As usual, I think it is probably both, but I deeply enjoy trying to see and understand the universe as governed by immutable laws.  In the past we thought that natural phenomena such as the wind, or the tides, or lightning was the random action of a supernatural power.  In time science discovered natural laws that explained these phenomena.  We have explored the physical world in these ways both at the macro scale and the micro scale.  I believe that both ends of the spectrum are infinite.  The way I reason this to myself is this: if you cut a piece of matter in half, you get two pieces.  If you cut those pieces, you get two more of each.  This can occur indefinitely, getting smaller and smaller, or vice verse.  What we tend to call random, chaotic, probability, or tendencies, seems to me to be those phenomena that lie beyond the micro or macro that we currently don't understand through our scientific studies.

What if these areas, however, are governed by collective thought.  Perhaps the reason why particles appear to behave randomly is because we have reached a level that is so micro, that our thoughts themselves are moving the particles around.  Perhaps because we as a collective humanity have such random and chaotic minds (not to mention oftentimes a lack of cohesiveness about our collective thoughts about things) this could affect what the particles of matter are doing at a micro level within any given piece of matter...a table, an automobile, a computer, etc.  What appears at one level to be orderly, at another appears chaotic and random.  It would be interesting to scientifically observe a large group of people centered in a room holding similar thoughts about an object, or set of objects, and observe the effects of this at a micro level in those objects using scientific instruments.  I wonder if the particles would behave more predictably, less chaotically, and patterns could start to develop.  The matter would still be subject to collective influences, but depending on the size of the group, and the power of the thoughts being transmitted, I wonder if order and laws could begin to be seen due to the coherent thought of the group, turning a random molecular scene into something more discernible. 

The chaos at micro and macro levels makes me think that there is something affecting our perception that we are not seeing, perhaps thought, or perhaps not.  Understanding what is affecting our perception could perhaps allow us to better see laws at work at these newly discovered quantum or macro levels that our instruments are now detecting. 

I am definitely open to the possibility of a universe that is based on probabilities and tendencies, but I don't want to give up the desire to observe new laws.  It seems like when we understand new laws, we are always benefited by this, because then we can use these laws.  Hopefully we will use them for creation and not destruction.  I'm sure that if new laws are observed at the quantum level, then we will have machines that eventually materialize our food, homes, etc., much like a holodeck.  If laws are understood at deeper and deeper levels, then the spiritual universe becomes more one with the physical, and the so-called "miracles" of the past become commonplace.  Even now we are dematerializing cancer cells with energy, and treating certain diseases with lasers.  This would seem like a miracle to people in the past.  Have we perfected it?  No.  But the desire to look deeply and discover new patterns, new laws, out of the seemly-random and chaotic, can lead to very helpful discoveries.