Do you believe we have free will or is everything pre-written. Fatalism, coincidences and fate?

Answer 1

I believe in Hume's Fork:

"Either our actions our determined, in which case we are not responsible for them, or the result of random events, in which case we are not responsible for them."

If you apply physics, matter is confined to follow certain laws. We are all composed of matter as well as the things around us, as well as certain other laws. But the infinite amount of interactions between our bodies, our environment, mind, and matter are too vast to ever calculate or predict. It is useless to even ponder the question of destiny.

However, the theory of quantum physics implies that quarks (pieces of atoms) are dynamic particles that are not confined to any laws and can actual pop in and out of existence. There interaction with other particles does affect their actions as well. The quantum theory is a theory, and by no means can anyone base such a question of destiny on analysis of the movement of atoms.

In layman's terms, we don't have free will to the extent of being able to directly decide what we will do in the future, there is no one decision making soul or 'me' that hits the execute button before an action is made. But we do have a brain system that carries out processes of analysis that takes part in making a final decision. But the processes at this time are too complex to map out nor to pin-point one major influence because the influences on our behavior are too vast. The two basic ones are nature, nurture. Others environment, genes.

Answer 2

I actually believe in fatalism, surprisingly.

First - the subject of free-will from god, is bogus. An omniscient god cannot give out free-will. That's impossible. Free-will implies that the decision is not pre-determined; i.e. can't be known ahead of time. How can a god that knows everything ahead of time have something that he can't know ahead of time? It's a paradox!

On the contrary, my belief is that our choices are all pre-determined; not by god, but by the initial conditions of the big bang. Things happen based on previous occurrences, right up to the point where I'm typing at this keyboard with these thoughts. While it would be silly for me to say that I don't have free control in my life, I do think that the choices I make are determined by my past experiences, thus they are in fact, determined when viewed from a larger picture.

Answer 3

I am believing in things that I would have laughed at you for even suggesting 2 months ago. I do believe in fate There is a reason for everything; sometimes fate brings people together because they were Meant to be. There are so many bends in the road that is my life now and every one of them brings new surprises daily. I still firmly believe in coincidence but fate plays a role in a lot of it as well

Answer 4

Hard to say. Most of us like to define that we all have free will, but their are those in other countries outside the USA, who don't. Even here in the United States, our free will can be stripped from us one way or another by more subtle ways (mind control methods from religious cults, the media, politicians, etc). Most people, including myself, don't like the thought that maybe we have little or no control of what happens to us in life. Our existence here as beings, desire to have total freedom of our minds, bodies, and spirits. Whether luck and fate plays a part in it, it's still open for debate.

Answer 5

As far as I can see, there is no such thing as free will. I base this on the trivial observation that you cannot choose what to think before you think it. Thoughts come into your mind unbidden, and you cannot choose what your next thought is going to be, because you would have to already be thinking of it in order to choose to think it, and that leads to an infinite regression.

Undoubtedly there is the influence of cause and effect - something happens to you, and you then think about it - and perhaps there is also a completely random element, but the same could be said of the weather, and we don't say that the weather therefore has free will.

So, if we cannot choose what to think, then we cannot choose what to do either, since our actions are (generally) guided by our thoughts (and any action that is *not* guided by our thoughts wouldn't be characterised as 'will' of any sort anyway).

Hence, as far as I can tell, free will does not exist.

Answer 6

Kind of like sailing a ship. We have free will in the course we set. Fates are like the winds. Sometimes we can trim our sails to allow for it. Other times it's a tempest that blows us off course and we find ourselves in strange places.

The story of Odysseus is a great example of this.

Answer 7

Jesus, when He was a man, believed in free will: "Not my will but yours be done"! (Lk 22:42)

Yes, we have free will. And that is the problem! God wishes that all would believe in Him through Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 3:9) Most refuse to believe (Acts 19:9, 14:2, 2 Thes 2:10). And so perish.

For those who believe, the problem is still free will. Submitting our will to His. Dying to self. Offering ourself as a living sacrifice. We keep getting up off the altar and crawling away! We continue to sin because we want to. We are weak in the flesh. Thanks be to God who has saved me from this body of death (Rom 7:24-25).

Of coarse we have free will. Otherwise, why would God command us over and over to believe in Him, to trust in Him, to follow Him, to turn to Him, etc.? If man had no free will, then why would God punish those who don't believe? If man nad no free will, why does Jesus lament over Israel saying, " I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matt 23:37)

Because they were not willing !

There's your answer.

Answer 8

if we have free will then how does god know what we will do? theyd have to be guesses? if god knows for a fact that we are going to do something, then for a fact we will do it, and thus we have no choice to NOT do it.

we may think we have free will, but if god knows everything that is going to happen, then everything that is going to happen has been played out already. we are just on the tracks and following it along. choices change future outcomes, however we cannot change the future in this method.

Answer 9

We neither have free will, nor is everything "prewritten". Free will in theological terms has to do with whether man has the ability to look to God for salvation while still in his sins. Calvinism says no, Arminianism says yes. The Bible does have examples of God using the unregenerate to accomplish his will, but I doubt if this extends to an intricate, prewritten agenda that amounts to fatalism.

Answer 10

According to the Bible, we have free will. But according to Psalm 139, "all my days are written in Your book." So looks like we have our lives planned out for us, and that Free will is simply an illusion God invented to keep us happy and to make us THINK we actually have a choice in anything...