Do you believe in Free Will? Do you believe in Fate? Do you think that there’s a bigger picture that we can’t yet see but still end up contributing in?
The sun sets everyday, knowing that this is Fate. The moon comes and whispers, ‘So is the dawn.’
Now, we won’t talk about unnecessary things like the sun never actually sets because it’s always there and the earth keeps revolving around it, giving the impression of night and day. No, that’s boring and irrelevant when we’re talking in metaphors.
We will talk about, instead, how the sun sets every evening, certain that it’s the end and if I was the sun, I’d blame Fate. Because it’s terribly easy to blame Fate.
Bad things happen, and we blame Fate. Good thing ends. Blame Fate. Forgot your keys?
Lost your phone? Got in an accident? Blame Fate.!
We blame Fate and probably the sun does too, but only until the dawn comes glaring again. We forget that if the night is Fate, then the morning is too.
We fall and we blame the ground. We get up, ignorant of the hand that is extended toward us, offering assistance.
We forget that the face attached to the hand belongs to Fate as well. It’s almost overwhelming—how pitifully unaware we are of the ever present power of something that governs everything. An order synthesised out of chaos. After all, could this universe ever survive without some form of order, some structure to its intricate architecture. How we ignore the sheer fantasy of living in a world built on plans and Bigger Pictures. But is there a bigger picture? Is there something called Fate?
Do you believe in Free Will?
Do you think we have a choice in what happens in the world, in the universe, even in our lives? Do you think we are free, individual agents and that no external power influences our decisions? Do you believe that we are responsible for our actions?
Or do you believe in the existence of Fate or Predestination. Do you believe that everything that happens has been already decided and that we are mere puppets in the hands of destiny?
Do you believe in a Bigger Picture that we can’t yet see but all our actions are but unconscious brush strokes to achieve that final image?
Do you believe that your destiny has already been decided for you? That everything is written and you we just characters following the Ultimate Plotline?
Free Will is referred to as any control a person has over their actions. Whether they are the source of their actions. If they have a choice as to what they do and how it affects the future. If they can be responsible for their actions.
Free will is the belief that is given the power, underrated and unappreciated as it is, to choose one’s actions, and by extension, one’s future.
We Chose Our Own Destiny
Metaphysical Liberatrianism claims that Free Will exists and that humans have the capacity to chose between any option without there choice being externally influenced or predetermined in any way.
We are given the power of choice and we excercise that everyday, in countless situations. We come across countless crossroads and we choose the path we wish to take.
We Are Built The Way We Are
Determinism, or Hard Determinism is the view that that people act a certain way because they never could have acted otherwise. It does not mean that their actions are dictated by Fate or Something Beyond Their Control.
It means that if I choose to save a drowning man, i do so because in no other circumstance could I have chosen any differently. I am built that way. My past actions have made me that way.
Determinists hold that we can’t help but act the way we do. Our present actions can be traced back to a past cause and that cause further back to even older causes.
Cause and effect. Every cause has an effect and everything that occurs in the present is led by past events such that nothing else could have ever occurred differently.
Ever since we’re born, our action have consequences for ourselves and these consequences are lead to our future action.
We are beings whose behaviour is completely predictable. We act a certain way and we will continue to act a certain way.
If you chose to have coffee this morning, when you might as well just have had a cup of tea, you might think that you chose this action. But that’s not true. It is determined—perhaps by countless beileifs, temperaments, preferences, mental states, and so on.
You think you have free will, and it certainly looks that way, but you don’t.
This view should not, however be confused with Fatalism, which holds that an individual has no control over their actions. Determinism is compatible with moral responsibility where Fatalism is not.
Libertarianism and Determinism contradict each other, in the sense that you can’t somehow believe in both. However compatibilsm is a view that tries to reach a middle ground of sorts.
Everything Is Written
Finally, we have Fatalism, which is the firm belief that everything that happens has already been decided, and that nothing we can do will change the outcome.
Prophecies and predictions are based on this principle. You might’ve read or heard of many stories, myths and folk tales where a person is prophecied to do something (like kill someone or die by a particular way) and in order to avoid doing, this person ends up doing things that only lead to the end already prophesied.
Take a man who is told by a future teller that he would die the next day. In order to escape his Fate, he isolates himself in his house, locks all the doors and lies down on the bed, thinking that nothing would kill him if he doesn’t go outside. Ultimately he dies in bed, crushed under the fan that fell on him. Is it possible that he might’ve escaped death if he’d gone about his day as usual? We will probably never know.
What do I believe? I believe in a bigger picture—of course I do. I doesn’t make any sense otherwise. But I also believe that we can chose how to go about painting it. I believe that we are responsible for our actions, and that we can’t just put the blame on destiny.
All paths converge. The destination is the same, of course. The destination has to be the same. But there are countless paths you can take to reach there.
Does that mean there’s no point in doing anything? After all, what’s the point of even trying if you’re destined for something. Why do the hard work if you’ll be either successful or unsuccessful, independent of what path you chose?
Suppose a young boy is destined for great wealth. Will he acquire it if he rests assured in the belief that he’ll get it no matter what. Will he achieve it if he never works towards it.
Destination remains there, a distant lamp on a darkened road. But you’ve got to put one foot after the other to reach it. You have to do the work, burn the calories. You have to cover that distance if you are to reach the light.
The painting’s all planned out. The canvas is set, the paints are ready. But nothing will happen if you don’t pick up the brush.
If you’re interested you can also check out this Crash Course video on YouTube.
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