First post in over 22 weeks, you might as well read and reply...
Okay, so after watching the Movie, Knowing (I thought it was a pretty good movie, although not at all what I expected, but many critics absolutely hated it. I guess if you hate Nicolas Cage, don't go see it, if you don't hate him, you might enjoy the movie...), I have a question, and I really wonder what most of you think on this point.
Religion aside (although it does come in to play for some), do you believe in determinism ( or that everything happens for a reason, and has been pre-planned, therefore we can do nothing to change it here as human beings) or randomness/free will (or that nothing is preplanned or happens for any specific reason but all consequences and reactions to own actions and our free will, so therefore we have the ability to choose everything that happens in this world)?
I myself, believe in a little bit of both theories. I believe that there are many things, things that change society, or life in general, that are preordained by...something...while those simple things that happen in our everyday lives, well, that's left completely to our own choices.
I use the example of Pearl Harbor, for instance. I beleve that event, as horrible as it was, had to occur for our world, our greater society to be what it is today. Had the attack on Pearl Harbor never come to pass, the american people would not have been so angry as to break our pact of neutrality in World War II, and we would have jumped into the war when it was far too late. After England would have been conquered, the US would have been an island, completely surrounded by the German/Japanese Empire. Do you really think Hitler would have stopped at the Atlantic Ocean, or do you think he would have wanted more? Do you really think that we would have been able to defeat both Germany and Japan, with no allies, and having to fight on our own soil?
Okay, anyway, enough of my ranting and delving into history. Like most movies that I would consider "good", this movie got me thinking. What is the world? and do we truly have a purpose in it? Those I know who have faith in organized religion probably already think they know the answer...but, what if they are wrong?
Religion aside (although it does come in to play for some), do you believe in determinism ( or that everything happens for a reason, and has been pre-planned, therefore we can do nothing to change it here as human beings) or randomness/free will (or that nothing is preplanned or happens for any specific reason but all consequences and reactions to own actions and our free will, so therefore we have the ability to choose everything that happens in this world)?
I myself, believe in a little bit of both theories. I believe that there are many things, things that change society, or life in general, that are preordained by...something...while those simple things that happen in our everyday lives, well, that's left completely to our own choices.
I use the example of Pearl Harbor, for instance. I beleve that event, as horrible as it was, had to occur for our world, our greater society to be what it is today. Had the attack on Pearl Harbor never come to pass, the american people would not have been so angry as to break our pact of neutrality in World War II, and we would have jumped into the war when it was far too late. After England would have been conquered, the US would have been an island, completely surrounded by the German/Japanese Empire. Do you really think Hitler would have stopped at the Atlantic Ocean, or do you think he would have wanted more? Do you really think that we would have been able to defeat both Germany and Japan, with no allies, and having to fight on our own soil?
Okay, anyway, enough of my ranting and delving into history. Like most movies that I would consider "good", this movie got me thinking. What is the world? and do we truly have a purpose in it? Those I know who have faith in organized religion probably already think they know the answer...but, what if they are wrong?