Sunday, July 27, 2008

My Freedom and My Fate...A Debate !

This thread I happened to write based on a debate in one of the orkut communities I was a part of. The debate was focused on two major points:
1- Is there something called a fate or destiny?
2- Are we controlled by fate or destiny or by self-effort/free-will?
I thought of viewing it a bit scientifically and I happened to land in a quote: Our sense of freewill is ultimately an illusion. I could not but help myself in plunging into another round of deconstruction. Here it goes...
In the begining I would like to clarify that it is not freewill but free-willS. Life is always a plural phenomena, full of alternatives. Had it been a single line segment, we would not be debating about free-will and fate.
Secondly free-will is not ultimate. Rather the decision to choose a particular alternative is ultimate. Now how does one decide? It is explained by rational choice theory and Adam's equity theory. In any transaction, be social, financial or institutional, one always looks towards getting as much back as one has given. If one gets more/less, there is inequity and this leads to disharmony within oneself. If one gets more than what one deserves there is guiltiness and one has to work hard to prove oneself to oneself. If one gets less, there is a war again and one gets depressed. Then how does one make a choice that will benefit? It is only when one can visualize the effect of one's choices. For many business orgnaiztions, it is a minimum 10 years time for which they start to calculate the Net Present Value of a project before they take up and for many individuals its 4 years. But still a well drawn up plan can face roadblocks from many quarters that one may not comprehend (Bounded-rationality theory). Therefore there is a concept of God as controller. One depends/blames on God or Higher power when one cannot evolve one's mind to that extent where it visualizes a plan competely with road blocks and backups. Hence it all boils down to personal evolution. We are as free as as our visualization and as free as we are evolved. This way God can be defined as a being who has maximum freewill since He is evolved so much that He can see through a plan right from beginning to end with roadblocks and backups. So He never fails! Pretty scientific, isn't it?
What is Grace then and where does it fit in the entire spectrum?
Having defined God and visualization previously, one can define Grace too.
Grace can be defined as a motivation that is transmitted from a person having total visualization to a person having limited visualization to act in a desired manner in order to propell a faster and beneficial decision making for the later. Since most of us have limited vision, we have to call upon God (the person having maximum visualization) to see where our plans have gone wary or can go wrong. Since He is trikaldarshi, the knower of past, present and future, He guides yet never forces us to decisions. A mistake is allowed and many ways are given to come back to the main plan. But still mistakes are allowed. God has the power to limit our choices to a few to enable us to succeed if only we trust on His vision. However He is the greatest democrat. He allows us to have it our own way, yet He is there at your beck and call. Thats why Jesus said, 'Ask, and it shall be Given, Knock and the door shall be opened'. Hence the only free-will that we have is Trust God or trust Self !