Fate and Free Will
I watched a movie tonight, one that Hubby came across by accident. It made me think about what we accept as fate, and what we call free will. Perhaps they are one and the same.
Is our future already decided for us? Is it pre-determined for us to be rich or poor, a doctor or politician or a garbage collector? Do we make choices to become a worker in a restaurant or an amusement park, or has some unseen higher power already decided our fate? Is there a master plan laid out for each of us? Can we change that direction by sheer force of will?
I look again at free will. We are given a menu of life choices. Our circumstances may lead us away from university to a job in a shop, or to life on a riverboat. We engage in dating many people, yet only one becomes our lifemate. Did we choose? Or was that choice decided somewhere else? And if so, where?
Do we have freedom to make different choices? Yes, we do. My question is--is the answer already in our DNA? Were our children meant to be born with the parents already selected for them? Is our greatness or bondage going to be, no matter the path we think we are freely choosing?
How do we know if the emotions we feel are meant to be real, or if a wind of change could alter them tomorrow? Were we meant to be something else, and a quirk of the universe decided differently for us?
Is fate nothing more than re-directed free will? Or is free will not free at all, but pre-determined? The questions go in circles, the answers looping about them, endlessly expressing themselves in convoluted terms and irony.
My head is spinning. I know that I've made some wrong choices over the years, my free will operating as it knew how at the moment the choice was made. Now I am wondering--would different choices have made any difference in the long run? Or were those the choices I was fated to make all along?
So whatever we are, whoever we are with, whatever we become....did we ever have a choice?
I'm beginning to think we didn't.
Is our future already decided for us? Is it pre-determined for us to be rich or poor, a doctor or politician or a garbage collector? Do we make choices to become a worker in a restaurant or an amusement park, or has some unseen higher power already decided our fate? Is there a master plan laid out for each of us? Can we change that direction by sheer force of will?
I look again at free will. We are given a menu of life choices. Our circumstances may lead us away from university to a job in a shop, or to life on a riverboat. We engage in dating many people, yet only one becomes our lifemate. Did we choose? Or was that choice decided somewhere else? And if so, where?
Do we have freedom to make different choices? Yes, we do. My question is--is the answer already in our DNA? Were our children meant to be born with the parents already selected for them? Is our greatness or bondage going to be, no matter the path we think we are freely choosing?
How do we know if the emotions we feel are meant to be real, or if a wind of change could alter them tomorrow? Were we meant to be something else, and a quirk of the universe decided differently for us?
Is fate nothing more than re-directed free will? Or is free will not free at all, but pre-determined? The questions go in circles, the answers looping about them, endlessly expressing themselves in convoluted terms and irony.
My head is spinning. I know that I've made some wrong choices over the years, my free will operating as it knew how at the moment the choice was made. Now I am wondering--would different choices have made any difference in the long run? Or were those the choices I was fated to make all along?
So whatever we are, whoever we are with, whatever we become....did we ever have a choice?
I'm beginning to think we didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment