I really don't think anything is set up in advance. It is all a matter of circumstances. If one day I decide to jump in front of a car, I really doubt it is the work of Karma/Faith.
Same thing for what you decide to do with life, you can choose to stay at home and never go to school or you can find an interesting domain and study in that domain.
Nothing is set up in advance, you set up things
I don't think my brain has anything to do with faith or destiny. I decide of what actions I choose to commit. There are some things, like emotion, reflex and neural responses that are out of my control, but its more a matter of circumstances than faith.
I do believe that luck exists, I'll get lucky if I jump in front of a car and the guy put the breaks on just on time and doesn't kill me. But that would be more a matter of "making decision efficiently" than faith or any unquantifiable thing.
Our subconcious controls our brain. It determines how we think at the end of the day. Our subconcious is molded from a young age by parents, teachers, TV, media, etc... Due to this you can say we don't have true free will. How we think is determined for us at a young age.
P.S: I don't believe in fate.
The very first definition for fate implies that it's determined by the supernatural. So, for any non-spiritual person, choices dictate a person's life 100%.
It's not that I don't personally believe in a supernatural power, though. It's kinda hard to explain my belief on that, but simply put: God is us, and we are God. Which would mean fate=choice.
I don't choose for him to slam the breaks, I could jump in front of a psychopath like TK who fantasise about killing someone, then I wouldn't have any luck and get killed. Too bad, I made bad choices if I wanted to live. Then it's my fault, not some sorts of special invisible force.
I don't believe that one's story is all set up and nothing can be changed. I'm aware of all my choices, I'm aware that if I stab myself in the kidneys, I might die. I might aswell live, depending on the healthcare I get. I doubt that, if my faith was different than dying stabbed in the kidneys, there will be faith knocking at my door saying "sorry to disturb you my kind sir but... you can't die like that".