Destiny

[DarkKnight]

Are our lives already determined, and no matter what we do we cannot change what will happen to our lives. I say yes. Here is what I believe in. I am an atheist, and do not believe in any god whatsoever. As a matter of fact I don't "believe" in anything. I may think that the world started with the big bang and I may think that abiogenesis was the beginning of life on earth. However, I do not believe that those occured. For all we know 1000 years from now we might have discover a more conclusive theory on the origins of our universe (if there are any).

I don't believe that any of the current scientific theories are completely true and will never be proven wrong. There is always the miniscule chance that new scientific discoveries will prove the modern sciences wrong. We can never be certain. However given our understanding right now, and having studied science, I for all practical purposes refer to the scientific theories as fact.

I think the entire universe is nothing but mechanical processes going on an eternal cycle. Maybe they have been going on for eternity, or maybe they spontaneously started due to quantum fluctuations in the vacuum of space. The bottom line is that everything is a mechanical process. In the same way that gears in a watch turn each other, everything else interacts with each other. This goes down the the microscopic and atomic levels. This includes our thoughts and actions. Everything I think I cannot control. Everything I do I can not control. Everything is simply the mechanics of the universe in motion. The universe contains everything therefore it is an isolated system. Because of this there is nothing that can interrupt or change the mechanics of the universe.

We have just as much choice over what we do as a rock falling off a cliff. The rock cannot choose to land a bit to the right. However there could be some wind which pushes a bit to the right. But the rock still has no choice.

Now for clarification, I do not think that there is something guiding this mechanical process, as that really contradicts it being a mechanical process. I simply see things as being predestined, not by anything, just by the fact that they will and have to happen. If an observer was able to view the mechanics going on they would be able to predict what would happen. However no one in this world can hold that knowledge. When confronted with a choice the choice is nothing but an illusion because we can only make our choices once and the mechanics going on influence us so we make the choice we make.

Life is like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXmNJhqngyM&search=honda

[Surlethe]

Your beliefs were actually held widely toward the end of the late nineteenth century. They were known as "mechanical determinists" (IIRC); they believed that, given the starting conditions of any given system (i.e., parameterize the position of the system in the phase space L with t, and know L[0]), you could precisely know the condition of the system at any given time t>0. Then came the advent of Quantum Mechanics, which destroyed that: the precise state of a system is unknowable beyond a certain point; that is, the positions of particles is sort of "smeared out" a little bit. Therefore, because the exact state of a system is never perfectly knowable, the idea of determinism is false.

However, that doesn't mean that Newtonian mechanics are incorrect; on the contrary, Newtonian mechanics are an acceptable approximation of the universe. So, you'd be correct in saying that on a large, macroscopic scale (i.e., planets and stars), the universe is mostly determined.

[wolveraptor]

I for all practical purposes refer to the scientific theories as fact.

Don't. Theories are explanations, mechanisms for the occurence of phenomena. We accept them not because they've been proven, but because they follow Occam's Razor and are consistent with facts. Facts are merely observations of those phenomena, accepted because they're testable and repeatable. They're not the same at all.

[Sam]

I thought this once after I first saw the movie 'groundhog day'. That, should the same day repeat over and over, would every person engage in the exact same routine, would they say the exact same things to each other, would the gravel under their shoes move in the exact same way as they would in any of the other days. Then I extrapolated that out onto the lifetime of the universe, thinking that it would probably be the exact same every single time if it were to begin again from the start.

[David Deas]

Destiny?

If you take a human being and place it in an environment, it will perform acts. If, at the end of said acts, you rewind time, would not said human being repeat the same acts?

If your answer is obviously theoretically so, then destiny. For all of you quantum physics heads, if your answer is theoretically not, then no destiny.

Pretty simple way to look at the question, IMO.