I've had too many discussions about predestination, fate, free will, to be able to really laugh at this comic. So many people I've talked to are totally wrapped up in it. I get really into the conversation when it heads in the direction of how our lives our practically different if we live in the knowledge that everything is predetermined or if we have free will (or something in between... or both). The conversation seems pointless or frustrating at times, but I just came across something that made it more interesting for me. Here's a passage from Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh:
"That was the cant phrase of the time, derived from heaven knows what misconception of popular science. 'There's something chemical between them' was used to explain the over-mastering hate or love of any two people. It was the old concept of determinism in a new form."
Reading this, it occurred to me that I had never thought about a scientific approach to predestination, a chemical attraction that forces two people together or any number of other little electrical signals that we don't have control over that determine whether or not we smile or look disappointed or take an instant disliking to a stranger. Now, I do believe in free will and I don't believe my actions are chemically or divinely predetermined. The interesting thing for me is that there is a connection between the scientifically discoverable free will and the divinely sanctioned free will that puts them at odds with the chemical and divine predeterminism.
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