lol. :)

I don't get why people are being aggressively stupid here. I would have expected a community of chess players to behave better than random internet forums. 

Or use a semi-automatic.

God there's a lot of bullsh*t and rigamarole on this thread.

In response to the original post, it's simple!

There are multiple reasons why the touch move rule is in place:

1) For the same reason that you can't make the move first on the Mon Roi and then play it, you are not allowed to see the resulting position before you play it.  If the touch move wasn't in place, I could move my Bishop from f1 to b5, hold on to it, see that it's not good observing the Bishop from that square, and pull it back and move something else.  This is illegal.  You also can't draw the resulting diagram on a sheet of paper as that would be notes.  Both notes and visuals of resulting positions in anything outside of Correspondence Chess is cheating.

2) Hovering your hand over the board all that time blocks the view of the position from your opponent.  Just because it's not your move doesn't mean you don't have the right to see the current position.  If you are Black, you have every right to see the position unobstructed even though it's White to move!  You just can't make a move.

One reason is that once a person picks up a piece, and then decides not to move the piece, the person often puts it back on the wrong square (either accidentally or intentionally).  I have witnessed this many times in casual games.  This would be intolerable in serious competition.

Two other reasons were already mentioned -- it would be very distracting, and also a way to unfairly gain information by eliciting reactions from the opponent.  Again, unacceptable in serious play.

As is so aptly illustrated in the movie, "Deer Hunter" if you don't hear the click of the trigger on the revolver the touch-move rule is  a moot question.

The point is simple,- think before moving, sit on your hands.

I like this rule. It is necessary in otb chess.

It is just as important as not to write your moves in advance.

People here only seem to play rapid transit chess.  It is impractical to sit on your hands before every one of your own moves.

Nice question, I like threads that ask about the basis of rules in the game.  Best to ignore the snobby people that you unfortunately get in chess forums who think they have an ordained right to derail a thread.

In my brief experience of looking at chess discussion on the internet I think you are over-optimistic.  Chess draws to it some people who want to feel superior to others, and these might like the elitest club aspect more than the actual game.

I suspect any simple, reasonable question would go exactly like this thread too.

"Why can pawns move two spaces from their starting row?"

"What, you want to move three spaces?"
"Read the rules"
"stupid question..."
"Pawns ARE allowed to move two spaces... noob"
"fine, let pawns move three spaces, what's the point of rules"
"WHY DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE RULES, OP IS TROLL" 

The chess 'community' shows more autistic tendencies than any other website. 

Great, after my opponent has been thinthing for 5 minutes, I will chage my mind, take back my last move, and play another one.

Grandmaster Andy Soltis once wrote that he knew chess was a professional sport when he learned about the touch-move rule. 

I wonder how many people here play golf with their friends and allow take backs and do-overs. The more seriously you take the game, the more touch-move makes sense.

Please be relevant, helpful & nice!

I may allow friends to change their mind but i have played otb chess long enough to never want to do it myself.

I am patronising enough to let people take back and arrogant enough to believe it makes no difference.

I played 23 games 20 minutes games (12 hours) in a row against one of the best in the club at the time I was in a club. He would never allow take backs he wanted me to learn to think before moving. I only won 3 games out of 23.

I think learning this lesson is important as in tournaments you get no take back option.

I Don't See the Point of the Touch-Move Rule

It prevents yet another tactic one can use over the board in order to try and annoy their opponent so bad that it keeps them off their game or toes so to speak. Imagine me playing against you and all I do on the 24th move is "scroll" through all the possible moves, captures, etc I can make. This may not bug eveyone. But for some or many it will. In this case they will become mentally disturbed, have more increasing pressure, and more than likely lose the game. To try and be "Fair, Reasonable, and Nice to Players" cautionary measures must be taken to prevent things that would allocate foul play from the players.