Duly Noted: Right Place, Right Time?
0By Jarrett in : Duly Noted, Jarrett Hill // Feb 13 2010
You ever stop and really wonder about things like luck, chance, fate, and free will?
For a long time I’ve chosen not to believe in luck, as it didn’t really add up in my head as a Christian.
::inside my head:: “Soooo, if I break this mirror (whether on purpose or accidently), regardless of anything else, God will basically all but smite for nearly a decade? Hmm. I’m good, thanks.”
Believing in chance… eh, I don’t know about that one either. Seems like a less lucky and gambly way of saying “luck.” (By the way, new word, gambly: ADJ. gam-blee; what it feels like to gamble.)
Now fate… fate is a tough one.
fate |fāt|
noun
1 the development of events beyond a person’s control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power
I think we’ve all tossed around fate-based colloquial phrases like “must have been fate,” “everything happens for a reason,” or (for most Christians) “God has a plan…” But is it the way that we perceive it? I’m not sure, but I’m thinking if it is, I’ve got some more questions.
Realistically, if fate is true and free will is wrong, then what’s the point of trying to do or be anything? What’s the point of goals, dreams, or aspirations? Why do we bother with making our own plans? I don’t know… I really don’t. It could be one, or it could be another.
I do think, whatever it is, we’re definitely more comfortable and relaxed with fate. Why? Because it requires nothing of us, really. We have no sense of responsibility or accountability if fate is true. How can we be blamed for the plot of a story where we aren’t the authors, but actually the characters in a story that we’re only scripted to participate in? If my life turns out to be less than mediocre, my contribution to the world is simply my existence, and my purpose in life turns out to be just to breathe in air and get rid of it… well, what can I say? It was fate!
But. I think there’s a hitch in that getalong. Or is there?
I guess I’d like to believe that God, the Creator, the Universe, the All would offer me the chance to have some choice in where I go and what I do. I’d like to believe that being given a mind, logic, and critical thinking would equate to the opportunity to actually use them. Why all the intelligent design if not for the intelligently designed to design (at lest somewhat) intelligently?
But then again, we create robots that are smart, but they don’t get to do anything… we don’t tell them to. So… what are we doing here?
I’m hoping that there is some sort of hybrid of fate and free will, like a Life Prius. But not one that’d be recalled like everything Toyota has put out in the last hundred years. Because me being flawed would be more than I could handel. I mean, “handle.”
j.
jarrett hill