It appears everyone failed to see my point in the last question i asked, Can someone have the free will to change a pre-determined fate....If yes then there was no pre-determined fate, and if no then there is no "complete" free will....
2007-07-18 20:07:38 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
just to clarify..i am not the slightest bit religious...
2007-07-18 20:25:11 · update #1
If you're not the least bit religious then it's really a non-issue. But, since I was a member of the Southern Hardshell primitive Baptists at one time I'll tell ya.
It's how you define free will that makes the difference. If God knows what you will do before you do it then you really don't have a choive do you? But if you redefine free will as meaning...
You are separate from the animals, you have a conscious mind and free spirit or soul You have the ability to know right from wrong and to reason. You even have the illusion of choice. Your choices are determined by your beliefs, outside influences and the consequences of that choice.
Do you really think you can choose to do something completely against your beliefs and your character, on purpose without putting yourself in peril.
The hardshells say all you gotta do is walk the walk. Let God handle the rest. I agree. Some things just aren't meant to be. You can bust your butt trying to make it happen to no avail. Then other times stuff just falls into your lap without even trying. Doesn't mean you just stop trying though.
Of course, you don't believe in any of this stuff so....
later
ps, I missed your last statement... "there is no complete free will"
You got it, that's it in a nutshell
2007-07-18 20:42:30 · answer #1 · answered by Dr Awkward 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My answer might seem a little religious, but thats just my upbringing. We have free will, and we are the only ones that do. God made us smarter than the animals, and unlike the angels who only work at His behest, gave us Free Will. But our destiny is pre-determined by the fact that God knows the future, so he already knows what decisions we will make. He has given us the power of Free Will and not determined our destiny for us. We decide our own fates by the decisions we make.
2007-07-18 20:15:47 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is an interesting question...and it doesn't seem there is a right answer...but there is.
In some cases, yes...you can...however there are some things that you cannot change...like...the fact that you will some day die. That fate is unavoidable for everyone. However, the decisions you make in life can change your pre-determined fate...because...God might have expected you to make a different decision...if you know what I mean.
2007-07-18 20:25:24 · answer #3 · answered by Tucker 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OH!! NOT THAT OLD CHESTNUT!!! It's worse than you'd think. If God is all powerfull, and he created the universe, then to suggets that he DID NOT know the future in advance would mean he is not ALL powerfull. BUT if he did know, then is it his fault if we go to hell?? Afterall, he made the whole kaboodle KNOWINGLY. He set us up! Even with God and fate out of the picture, the psychology types can't agree on the free will thing. We appear to merely be responding to out past conditioning and present circumstances. Like dominoes. I would like to hear from a priest and a lawyer on this one. The clergy have been chewing it over for thousands of years and the legal system actually spends a lot of time deciding just how responsible people are for their actions. You see. That question can rapidly lead to a headache.
2016-03-15 06:44:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are using your free will to reject Jesus. God gave this to you and to everybody else. That is one of the traits all humans have. Our dystiny is something felt deep within us. You may or may not know what it is yet. Some people never find out in their lifetime. Pre-dystiny has to do with already knowing what will happen in your life before it happens, without you knowing anything about it. One day it slaps you in the face. Like it just falls in your lap from the sky. It was just meant to happen, and so it does. The other kind of dystiny is after you experience something that changes your direction in the middle of your life. You have a free will to follow that direction, or go on about you merry way. You will not be really happy though, untill you decide to go in the direction that is not your free will to change directions.
I hope I answered you question.
2007-07-18 21:51:45 · answer #5 · answered by Rennis Garigin G 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A pre-determined fate is beyond our control .It can be compared to how your genes are made up .You cannot change what you inherit from your parents, or if you are predisposed to an illness, but that doesn't stop you from having free will .It just means "complete" free will can't change everything you would like to change.
2007-07-18 20:38:43 · answer #6 · answered by ROBERT P 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question presupposes what is labeled "hard determinism" versus free-will or agency. In such a distinction, you are right that to have one of them, you must necessarily NOT have the other. In short, "hard determinism" (fate/destiny) is mutually exclusive with free-will (agency).
However, some thinkers posit a position called "soft determinism." In such a structure, you find that relations to future actions are not based on certainty (either you go out the door or you don't) but rather on probability (you have this much likelihood to go out the door). In soft determinism, one could claim that there are "hints" of free-will. In short, it is a space where neither hard determinism nor free-will are "complete."
2007-07-18 20:15:41 · answer #7 · answered by Think 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
not everything is so black and white, like the answer you want. i believe it is not one or the other but both in balance. the universe is all about balance: negative/positive, cause/effect, good/evil. sometimes **** happens for no reason, and that's it's purpose. to just happen, to be and exist, and that's all. other times you can be brought to a moment where you are fated one way or another. not everything have meaning beyond randomness. two contradictory planes can co-exist together in balance. one can't exist without the other. it's both. i'm agnostic if you're wondering and that's not a religion.
2007-07-18 22:04:27 · answer #8 · answered by optcynbassist 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For starters, lets just start with the supposition that fate is predetermined and so everything that happens to you has essentially already happened.
At some point you may recognize that all along you have had the ability to choose your state of mind regardless of what seemed to happen to you. You had the power of choice, but not where you thought it existed. It was your mind.
2007-07-19 01:50:08 · answer #9 · answered by ineeddonothing 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most people i know seem to believe in both, i.e. we determine our faith, but sometimes destiny takes course/god conciously puts things in our lives.
This is B.S.
The reality of god is that he 'knows' all. Time as we percieve is meaningless. In the christian worldview, god MUST know whether you are going to heaven or hell before you are born.
However, because we percieve time as happening before us, there is a sort of effectual free will. i.e. because we dont know what is going to happen, what we do seems to be free will even though it was going to happen all along. In my opinion, we percieve our own free will.
Check out 'What the @#$% do we know?' a very coolly philosohical exanimation of time/conciousness etc.
2007-07-18 21:15:58 · answer #10 · answered by jonblaze 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋