Question Fifty-One
Is Everything Predetermined?
There are two major views on this. The first is that everything is predetermined and meticulously planned out. We really have no free will, but just think we do as every move we make is already set in stone. Many religious people with this belief think that those who are saved and will go to heaven, or damned and will go to hell, are already determined. If your fate is to go to hell there’s nothing you can do to change it.
The other group has a bit more logical approach. They see us as having free will. The future is malleable and we can make if it what we will. Where we wind up in this world or the next is determined by our decisions.
It is interesting that many in this second group have a belief that moves them back into place with the first group. And what is that?
Many of them believe that God knows every single thing that will ever happen. A thousand years ago God knew I would be writing this very sentence I am finishing now. He not only knew I’d be scratching my nose right now, but He knew who I would marry and the exact number of calories I would consume today.
The trouble is that the only way that God could know such things is if everything were predetermined and we had no free will to change it.
For those who think that God knows every detail that will ever happen I would ask why He would even want to know.
Does it not make much more sense to see that God knows his plan and what the end will be, but is unconcerned about he minutia.
When Leonardo DaVinci envisioned the Mona Lisa he undoubtedly had an idea of how he wanted the finished product to look. There was no way he could have predicted each brush stroke as the work progressed. Yet he had free will to make whatever strokes he wanted or any mistakes that happened along the way.
Even so, it is with God, and man who is in the image of God. We can plan the future but wouldn’t want to know all the details about it, even if such a thing were possible.
Before we were born we work out a plan for this life, but we do have free will and things do not always go according to plan. Then once in a while things go better than planned.
After we get here and begin to mature we work out various other plans for life. We have complete freedom to choose. Even so, there is a memory of our pre-mortal plan in our soul and this gives us an inclination to go in the direction of our plan. Most try to go in this direction, but others ignore it.
All plans are a product of free will and if the plan is solid and strictly followed the person can see many, but not all, of his projections come true.
On the other hand, many detours and problems occur when pursuing a plan that were not foreseen, causing the plan to develop in a way that no one could have predicted.
Then there are times that the person realizes his plan is not a good one and he replaces it with another one.
Such things happen though the application of free will, intelligence and planning in both this world and the spirit world.
A question many have is whether our days are exactly numbered. Is there an exact time allotted for each life?
When making our life plans before birth we have a good assessment of the probable length of time we will live and this assists us in making our strategy for maximum use of the mortal life. We usually live within a year or two of that assessment, but that sometimes will change. The person could abuse his body more than expected or even commit suicide. Then he may go on a health kick and extend his life an extra ten years or so.
Many also wonder about accidents and fluky events like winning the lottery. Are they preplanned?
Some accidents and handicaps are preplanned before we were born. Often it is determined before birth that the entity must undergo some painful life changing experience in order to attain maximum growth. Without such an event it may be seen that the guy’s ego or life would just go out of control. So, yes, sometimes accidents and even lucky flukes are preplanned.
Then there are times that accidents just happen because of carelessness or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many try and see everything that happens, both good or bad, as an intricate part of a plan, but many things happen that are just random events that we need to deal with in the best way that our intelligence will allow.
A simple example may help to clarify.
Suppose you had a plan to get on your boss’s good side so you’ll get a raise. There are a number of ingredients in your plan such as putting in extra hours, throwing him a surprise birthday party, making his job easier and so on. Then, after the birthday party that went according to plan, you go to the parking lot, get in your car and back right into your boss’s car scratching his fender. Woops! That was something that was definitely not in the plan. If you still want that raise you’re going to have to handle this situation skillfully.
In the movie Oh God!, George Burns spoke truly when he told John Denver that we are responsible for what we make of this world. We are also responsible for what we make of our individual lives.
Let us then use our free will and make the best of it.
Copyright 2014 by J J Dewey
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