Free Will vs Determinism
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I don’t believe in faith and or miracles; it is an outdated way of thinking that doesn’t necessarily mean a person doesn’t believe in free will.
For example, years ago, my grandparents won the lottery.
That resulted from buying a lottery ticket every week for the past 50 years, and as luck would have it, they won.
My grandma told me if it wasn’t for that million dollars — she wasn’t sure what she and my grandpa would have done to survive.
That had zero to do with a miracle, just the luck of the draw, and that was neither free will nor determinism.
So why are some people born into labour camps in North Korea, and why are some born multi-millionaires along California’s oceanside?
Nothing but bad and good luck. Everything that has or is happening results from past experiences, choices, books one has read, trial and error, and just plain luck.
If you follow Catholicism’s faith, you believe that Jesus was born to a virgin, considered a miracle.
If you look at history before 320 A.D., before the emperor Constantine and his bishops wrote the bible, and back then, they weren’t thinking in terms of free will vs determinism.
Every religion beforehand can trace back to the days Egyptians reigned supreme.
They never once told stories of these miracle workers here on earth but referred to them as a god(s).
They were the unseen force that drove everything, which was not a human form.
God vs Determinism
Today people may view their God as an entity allowing them free will.
That’s where the Sun got its name from.
It was formally known as God’s Son, the creator of life, and without God’s Sun, life would not exist and neither would the free will vs determinism debate.
And evil was the darkness, and it took the Sun away at night.
Try this simple thought experiment: think of any city in the world.
Now you had the choice to think of any city in the world, and you could have chosen Shanghai, Cairo, Calgary, Vancouver, Quebec City, or whichever city you wanted.
Now, free will may have you believe that the choice you made was random.
But, if you dig deep enough, that city you chose due to a prior experience, maybe it was a city you live in or have gone to, or perhaps one you want to go to.
The point is there have been many studies proving this same thought experiment can be replicated as many times as you want to do it, to show eventually there is a meaning to that person behind which city they chose.
And dissolves any belief that it was chosen from a free will standpoint.
Free will vs determinism comes down to the individual’s belief systems, so choose your beliefs carefully.
