Whenever i've come thought about the idea of fate and free will coexisting, i've always thought about it in terms of "now and then".
For example, when i'm faced with a decision, such as attending event A or event B, i have 100% free will in deciding which one i should take.
But, after i have made the decision, the consequences and actuality of attending the other event are removed.
Think of it like this... (imagine time along the bottom)
_A
_
_B
Here, at a single point in time, i am presented with a choice: event A, or event B. If i choose event A, (forgive me for using this horribly cliched
line) at the end of day, only one path was chosen. The picture above would look like this...
___________________________________________A
_
_B
From this picture, it would make no difference to simply eradicate event B's existence and turn the picture into this...
_____________________________________________________A
One could say that originally I was fated into choosing the event A, but i made the free choice of choosing it over B.
At the time of a choice, free will is present, but when the choices are looked at in terms of what happened, it is obvious to say that only one thing
did happen and that this may have been predetermined.
ETA - the post seems to have moved my lines about, let me find a way to fix this...
The lines arent quite as clear but make more sense than previously
edit on 7/4/12 by Kingofthehill because: (no reason given)