Fate Vs. Freewill Essay, Research Paper

The argument has been made by some religious people that every person’s fate is predestined, and everyone is subject to the fate God wills them. Others have argued that everything in life is based on free will where each person decides their own fate. Still others have strayed towards the middle, claiming it is a combination of both. The hand that is dealt to you can be played anyway you want. Life must be a combination of determinism and freewill, say a person wishes to become a professional athlete. This person would have the physical conditioning necessary to excel in such an environment. Part of that would come from training, of course, but the chance of such a person succeeding would have to rely on the body they were given to start with. Therefore, such a person’s fate would be partly predestined. Part of the destiny of being an athlete would have to be determined by free will. If this person had chosen not to be an athlete and opted instead to be a computer geek, that would be free will. Free will and predestination must go hand in hand, complementing one another. Say that another person wanted to win the lottery. For example, this person bought lotto tickets daily. Sure, there’s the element of chance, but part of the outcome must be determined. If the person wasn’t destined to win they would simply not get any winning tickets. In addition, this person could not win the lottery unless chance was on their side. They would have to be in the right place at the right time, as the saying goes, in order to win. A person taking the side of predestination would say that if he wasn’t meant to win , then his destiny would not have placed him in a position to win. On the other hand, one could argue that free will was responsible, and that the person was solely responsible for their good fortune. The individual could have chosen not to buy a ticket on the particular day that he might have won. Or he may have chosen to buy a ticket at a different location than he usually goes to. It would be hard to keep either determinism of free will out of the equation, because they seem to have equal parts in it.

In any event, the point here is that no single person or group can argue that everything is either predetermined or not. There has to be a grey area in between where the two meet on equal terms. This seems to be the area in which most of the real events in life occur; part conscious decision, part unavoidable circumstance. Hardly ever will things be solely the result of free will or fate/destiny. There is no defining end to this argument between determinism and free will, unless you agree that they are equally important in the “great equation” of life. Now as for the theory of free will being ones fate. If you choose to do something would that not be your fate instead of your free will? This is an entirely different section of the fate and free will argument that I will not get into.