youBlackEmporer Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Did I choose out of free will to write this post or was my writing of this post determined the instant I was conceived, and the universe has been progressing towards this point ever since? Do you believe in determinism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThetaOrionis01 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Nope. There's enough randomness and uncertainty in the universe to make determinism very unlikely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramul Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Even if this were the case...could we tell? Or would we be fated not to know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark0ne Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 And does determinism go hand in hand with destiny, or are they completely different? Can you have a destiny without being determined? I heard (what I thought was a good analogy) for free-will AND determinism from a uni graduate the other date. He explained that if you put an ant on a piece of paper he'll begin walking to the edge. He may try and go to the north-west corner of the paper, but if you (playing God) move the paper around he'll then be going to the south-west corner. He explained it a lot better (I'm tired :cry2: ) but essentially it was a scenario where the ant was determined yet could be lead to believe it has a free-will in how it gets there...guess its a Christian analogy for how God can have a "plan" without impeding on our free-will to make actions. Uh huh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youBlackEmporer Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 I view destiny as something different than determinsim. Destiny is, IMO, meaning that some higher intelligence (God, whoever) from the beggining of time decided that I was going to write these words I currently write, and that is that. Determinism is more of a.. well because genetically I have a certain disposition to ask pointless questions that people argue over, and the fact that I was born in a certain country, to certain parents, in a certain class, educated in a certain way, and having gone through certain experiences, led me to meet a person who informed me of determinism, and eventually led me to try and discover how the people here think of determinism (and then there's the fact that I play Morrowind, which was given to me for free from a friend who recieved it for free who had no interest in it, and the fact that I met that certain friend through our parents friendship, etc.). Now I'm just rambling, but I guess since you don't choose your DNA, your nationality, the era your born into, your parents, your race, your wealth, your class, etc, which are all the foundation of who you become, that we are all just victims to our circumstances. No real control over why we are who we are. Destiny could be the same thing to a creationist that determinism is to an evolutionist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaosmaker Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 I believe every man is fated to do one thing in this world that will impact it one way or another as higher powers wish. Whether we like what that one thing is or not. For example, I may one day find the cure to cancer or I may one day accidently release a deadly virus. I don't know. As said in the Matrix, Every man makes his choice before the moment comes. But when the moment arrives you are not thinking of what choice you are going to chose, but "why" you chose it. All in all i'm saying one thing we have no control of what happens to us whether we like it or not, higher powers decide what happens to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youBlackEmporer Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 Determinism isn't so much about what happens TO us, more like do we control the things that we do, or is it all a matter of circumstance. Are we determined by our environment, or is our environment determined by us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaosmaker Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 I think nothing is determined by US we do what we do because we were chosen to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youBlackEmporer Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 Chosen by who or what might I ask? (BTW I dont want to bring religion into this debate, simply curious) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaosmaker Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 By a higher power of course. We were chosen to join this thread, Bush was chosen to lead america, I was chosen to write this at 5:30 Eastern Standered Time. Now that thats settled i won't bring up Religion anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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