Free Will or Fate
“Chance is the fool’s word for fate”
The Gay Divorcee, 1933 (Fred & Ginger)
Do we direct our lives, or are our lives controlled by the gods, or by fate or destiny? I think that as we get older we tend to believe the latter. As younger people (i.e., under fifty), it is comforting to believe that we are in control of our lives. “We make it happen.” “You can be anything you want.”
As we get older, however, we find ourselves looking back over a string of failures: bad marriages, failed or disappointing businesses and careers, our kids on drugs, dreams that didn’t come true despite our sincerest efforts. And with these failures goes guilt: “I should have done it differently.”
In order to diminish the sense of guilt, we tend to find ourselves being drawn into the camp of what the religionists call pre-determinism (what the ancients called fate or destiny). It begins to appear that our lives are actually formed by events beyond our control.
Shakespeare observed that the world is a stage and we are just actors reading our lines & following stage directions written for us by some unseen Writer/Director.
I tend to see life as a movie, since I am a product of the second half of the last century. It is a very realistic movie with not only Technicolor, digital sound, and 3-D, but also taste, smell, & touch. Very realistic but a movie (story) nonetheless, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And one day, I believe, the words “THE END” will appear, the screen will go dark, the lights will go on, & we will be amazed to discover the reality that was all around us all the time – that reality being, we are all living our own soap opera, which might be entitled “My Life In This World.”
If life as we know it is actually determined for us, our perception of “reality” immediately undergoes a complete reversal. For instance, fear and guilt are immediately transformed into phantoms or specters, no more “real” than villains on a movie screen. There cannot be any fear or guilt where there can be no responsibility assigned to actions and decision-making.
If I am living out my life passively rather than as an initiator of action, then “I” am not doing anything myself, either “good” or “bad.” I am simply following instructions. I cannot fear the future, for it is not in my hands to determine. And I have no need to feel guilty about the past for I had no hand in determining it.
The Gay Divorcee, 1933 (Fred & Ginger)
Do we direct our lives, or are our lives controlled by the gods, or by fate or destiny? I think that as we get older we tend to believe the latter. As younger people (i.e., under fifty), it is comforting to believe that we are in control of our lives. “We make it happen.” “You can be anything you want.”
As we get older, however, we find ourselves looking back over a string of failures: bad marriages, failed or disappointing businesses and careers, our kids on drugs, dreams that didn’t come true despite our sincerest efforts. And with these failures goes guilt: “I should have done it differently.”
In order to diminish the sense of guilt, we tend to find ourselves being drawn into the camp of what the religionists call pre-determinism (what the ancients called fate or destiny). It begins to appear that our lives are actually formed by events beyond our control.
Shakespeare observed that the world is a stage and we are just actors reading our lines & following stage directions written for us by some unseen Writer/Director.
I tend to see life as a movie, since I am a product of the second half of the last century. It is a very realistic movie with not only Technicolor, digital sound, and 3-D, but also taste, smell, & touch. Very realistic but a movie (story) nonetheless, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And one day, I believe, the words “THE END” will appear, the screen will go dark, the lights will go on, & we will be amazed to discover the reality that was all around us all the time – that reality being, we are all living our own soap opera, which might be entitled “My Life In This World.”
If life as we know it is actually determined for us, our perception of “reality” immediately undergoes a complete reversal. For instance, fear and guilt are immediately transformed into phantoms or specters, no more “real” than villains on a movie screen. There cannot be any fear or guilt where there can be no responsibility assigned to actions and decision-making.
If I am living out my life passively rather than as an initiator of action, then “I” am not doing anything myself, either “good” or “bad.” I am simply following instructions. I cannot fear the future, for it is not in my hands to determine. And I have no need to feel guilty about the past for I had no hand in determining it.
posted by Old Timer at 3:06 PM
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