Fate?
Morpheus: Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
When I first saw The Matrix, this was the one exchange that totally hit home. Religion seem to teach that your fate, or destiny, is predetermined and that it is all part of a grand plan by someone we can't see. I have struggled with this for years. Is my life predestined, or am I making the choices? Like Neo, I like to think that I'm in control, because without that it doesn't seem like much fun. I dont' color within the lines; I run with scissors; I walk under ladders; I walk out in front of moving cars. I don't do it to tempt fate (whatever that means), but I do it to convince myself that I am in control. If I jab myself with the scissors it's because I was stupid enough to run with them pointing directly at my leg; if the ladder falls on me it's because it wasn't secured properlyl and I was stupid for walking under it, not because I broke the holy trinity; and if I get hit by a car...well, I think I would do more damage to the car than it would to me so I'm not too worried about that.
I like to feel that I am in control of me, but I'm not a control freak. I feel that if I can see/hear/feel what's going on, I can at least react accordingly given all known parameters. One reason I don't drink is because I don't feel in total control of my own actions, and I don't like this feeling. I like to know that whatever it is that I do is because of a conscious choice that was thought through completely. Sure, I make rash decisions and follow my first reactions, but even then I still feel in control of what I'm doing. My dichotic thought process becomes a bit cloudy when taking into consideration outside happenings that I can't control. When an external event happens, I tend to think that it happened for a reason, but yet I can still control my reaction to it...so while I believe in the fateful event, I feel that my reaction is not fate but a conscious decision on my part (i.e., not fate).
Sure, I think I may have lost myself there, but I guess I just can't grasp teh concept of fate. I guess it's just that if I believe in fate, I have surrendered free will. This is not a proposition that I am comfortable with. But, if I dismiss the idea of fate, I must also accept that serendipity, chance, and happenstance don't exist, which I am also not comfortable with dismissing. I think this will be an issue that I will continue struggling with, because I have no proof either way and my logical engineering reasoning becomes conflicted with my moral upbringing (plus, believing in fate is an easy excuse). It's getting late, and as you can see, I've put way too much thought into this. These are the things that I think about when I get free time. Scary, huh? Well, that and I'm still trying to figure out that if corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?
Cheers,
Rocco
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
When I first saw The Matrix, this was the one exchange that totally hit home. Religion seem to teach that your fate, or destiny, is predetermined and that it is all part of a grand plan by someone we can't see. I have struggled with this for years. Is my life predestined, or am I making the choices? Like Neo, I like to think that I'm in control, because without that it doesn't seem like much fun. I dont' color within the lines; I run with scissors; I walk under ladders; I walk out in front of moving cars. I don't do it to tempt fate (whatever that means), but I do it to convince myself that I am in control. If I jab myself with the scissors it's because I was stupid enough to run with them pointing directly at my leg; if the ladder falls on me it's because it wasn't secured properlyl and I was stupid for walking under it, not because I broke the holy trinity; and if I get hit by a car...well, I think I would do more damage to the car than it would to me so I'm not too worried about that.
I like to feel that I am in control of me, but I'm not a control freak. I feel that if I can see/hear/feel what's going on, I can at least react accordingly given all known parameters. One reason I don't drink is because I don't feel in total control of my own actions, and I don't like this feeling. I like to know that whatever it is that I do is because of a conscious choice that was thought through completely. Sure, I make rash decisions and follow my first reactions, but even then I still feel in control of what I'm doing. My dichotic thought process becomes a bit cloudy when taking into consideration outside happenings that I can't control. When an external event happens, I tend to think that it happened for a reason, but yet I can still control my reaction to it...so while I believe in the fateful event, I feel that my reaction is not fate but a conscious decision on my part (i.e., not fate).
Sure, I think I may have lost myself there, but I guess I just can't grasp teh concept of fate. I guess it's just that if I believe in fate, I have surrendered free will. This is not a proposition that I am comfortable with. But, if I dismiss the idea of fate, I must also accept that serendipity, chance, and happenstance don't exist, which I am also not comfortable with dismissing. I think this will be an issue that I will continue struggling with, because I have no proof either way and my logical engineering reasoning becomes conflicted with my moral upbringing (plus, believing in fate is an easy excuse). It's getting late, and as you can see, I've put way too much thought into this. These are the things that I think about when I get free time. Scary, huh? Well, that and I'm still trying to figure out that if corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?
Cheers,
Rocco
posted by Rocco @ 8:28 PM
3 Comments:
At 1:27 PM,
Ryan said…
Aside from death and taxes, you may rest assured that your free will remains intact.
There is no reason to feel that "fate" must somehow preclude "free will" and vice versa.
In fact, I feel that if your religious mentors brought you up with the idea that your fate is predetermined, they did you a great disservice.
I think that if God had intended that our lives are predetermined, he never would have created the "forbidden fruit" (if you believe in Genesis-as-fact, which I don't.) Since I also don't believe that God is malevolent, it follows that he would not predetermine our lives and include all of these awful things that go on in our world.
If God is not vengeful and/or malevolent, then the existence of "evil" can only underscore the existence of free will. Free Will is pointless if no choices exist... i.e., if you can only choose good, then you don't really have free will, do you?
Now, since we exist in a world with lots of other "free" people (and several people who are rather expensive, but that's another story) then we could describe "fate" and "happenstance" and "serendipity" as collisions of free will.
So, to appeal to your engineering mind: Imagine the world as a large xy plane, and your existence as a parametric plot on said plane. "Fate" occurs when your plot intersects with others.
See? All you needed was a paragidm shift!
At 1:48 PM,
jprg4evr said…
I think you have just proved that preordained fate cannot exist with fate. I'm fine with that. Arguing against myself though and continuing your mathematical analogy, perhaps fate is a locus of points. Perhaps there are multiple solutions and my free will determines which solution will come to fruition. God would have to be one heck of a mathematician to develop a complete plan with that many logic gates.
In general, I don't believe that preordained fate could exist alongside freewill. I believe that the Joan of Arcadia type of planning takes place. God can provide us with the opportunities that fit in his grand plan but we still have to choose whether we want to participate.
At 3:21 PM,
Rocco said…
Guys, I think my head just exploded.
Hey Ryan, thank for "dumbing it down" to simple engineering/mathmatics-speak for me! That made things alot simpler
'cause I can visualize that alot better.
Both interesting points of view...thanks for the input.
Post a Comment
<< Home