Episode 4 (The Compatibilism Proposal)
"... And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back..."
How about this? You’ve found the love of your life, at long last! Now it’s time to marry him, right? To propose or not, to say yes or no, hugely meaningful choices. Yet, the only reason these choices are even present is chance. Meeting that person for the first time or seeing them a second time is the most pure form of happenstance there is. Maybe the day you met him you chose to cut through a building because it was cold outside and there he was, or you took the first staircase up to the second floor instead of taking the second like you usually do. Whatever the circumstance, meeting this person was either meant to be by predetermination, or was pure happenstance… chance.
Predetermination? Chance? . Let’s say we can truly make our own decisions, but if we lack predetermination and everything happens by chance, what is that freedom worth? If everything is random, it can be argued that our freedom is meaningless. No matter what we decide, which direction we take to work, where we go to school or go to work, the outcome each time is entirely random. Maybe we get hit by a car, maybe we get to work early and get a life changing promotion, it wouldn’t be up to us. The same conclusion is reached if we look at predetermined paths. Our choices may be our own or they may not, but what is that freedom worth if the predetermined outcome occurs regardless?
I seek an explanation through Compatibilism; divine intervention.