Man is neither consulted about his birth or his death. The Christian faith teaches that not even a sparrow will fall in this earth without God's permission. Just look at the birds, they neither sow nor reap buy the Holy Father provides for them. Why should we worry about how we'll gonna live - surely God loves man more than He loves the other lowly creatures. If these are the truth that the Bible teaches - where does the exercise of "free will" comes in ? Could Judas, who was destined to betray Christ, go against what was was destined for him to commit ? Why were the so called "chosen people" chosen instead of the other races like the Philistines, or the Summerians ? We are all predestined to live a life within a time frame given to us by our maker, the "free will" things comes after leaving us a choice which version of truth to believe as different religions have tried to sway man to their ways,
These were the questions that were never answered by generations after generations, and surely no one in the present, or maybe in the near future will be able to provide a satisfactory explanation to unite all men under one set of beliefs. Different religions will continue to war against each other in defiance of the doctrines each one of them want to impose on them. World leaders may one day compromise on how to tackle political and economic issues, even territorial disputes, but in the matter of which faith to embrace - it will always be war - Islamic states against the Jews, Muslims against Christians, Hindus against Muslims, and so forth.
Our world is like a big movie where everything had been written down and the script handed down to the players representing the good and the evil side. Each time there is a failure to come into terms, war breaks out between the two contending forces, with no clear winners from both sides. And as players are killed, new players come in - its a never ending cycle - and will continue to go on until the world ends and cease to exist. Each one of us will have a part to play - our life touching other people's lives - and maybe that's what life is really all about. We need to play the part given to us shine a bit so our role would somehow be remembered by those we will leave behind and help inspire others to do the same.
Several centuries before the birth of Christianity, the Hindus tried to come up with a good answer to the question. They believe that under the Law of Karma, the next life is predetermined by the kind of life we led in our first life. You reap what you sow, so if you do good in your first life, you will b rewarded in next life with a better life. Succumbing to evil deeds will get you punished in your next life with a lot of sufferings.
Taoism, also developed several centuries before Christ, taught men how to live in harmony with naturalness and simplicity of life, and the balance of the ying and the yang. Its the do not do unto others what you do not want to to done unto you thing, and accepting life as it is given and then learning to like whatever fate have provided for you. People sometimes do not get what they deserve and sometimes some people get things they do not deserve but nature has a way of healing the hurt they cause and would someday restoring the balance each person are destined to receive.
Muhammad Ali provided a good answer when he was asked the same question by our very own Ronnie Natahnielz after he defeated Joe Frazier in "The Thrilla in Manila". Ali said that men could be compared to a drop of rain, all of us coming from heaven, but each taking a different path before we reunite with the great ocean. We are all part of a grand plan not knowing when life would begin for us, how we are going to live, and how we will join our maker in the end, but definitely each of us matter and no matter how insignificant our life seem to be, we will be measured by a different scale that our God molded us from. We are free to see our own beliefs and worship God in our own way. The Muslim faith provides that the customary law to which a person is born and reared before he converted to the Islamic faith will be given consideration by the judicial authority even when they conflict with some principles of the canon law (Shariah). The exercise of free will lies only in our choice if we would decide to stay or leave the kind of faith we embrace.
Buddhism teaches that we are destined to live a life of sufferings so we must learn how to curb our desires for material things to have the inner peace and serenity we need to be enlightened and reach the stage of blessedness. The sufferings are the cracks in our life, but it is through this cracks that light comes in so it lies within us if we will welcome the pains and learn from them, to patch this cracks or make a window out of them so could use the lessons learned to teach other people to learn the same. One good and entertaining movie that deals with the subject is "Eat, Pray, Love" starring Julia Roberts. Another is "7 Years in Tibet" with Brad Pitt. The book versions provide the better insights but they are harder to find so the movies could easily be accessed in Youtube.
Another good movie that tried to explain the "free will vs. destiny" thing is "The Adjustment Bureau" starring Matt Damon. Everyday when we wake up - that's destiny - what we do for the day is up to us, though from time to time messages are sent to us to follow a certain track, but given the "free will", we could decide to take the hint or follow a different path. Another movie, "Its a Wonderful Life", tries to relate to us that no matter how fouled up things are, God will always be there to right things up when they seem to be falling in shambles. That's the best thing about life - we are allowed to commit some mistakes, maybe learn something from it and bounce back.
I was into Martial Arts in my younger days and the first thing each student should learn is find out the attributes or "natural gifts" endowed on him. Everybody could learn how to fight, but to be an effective fighter, we should realize that there are some limits on the level of skills we can develop. We can train to be good fighters but we measure our skills by going against an adversary and have to be able to deal with the pains that comes with facing the challenge. The pains will provide us lessons to elevate our skills and most importantly make us realize the limits of our natural gifts. Take it from the world famous boxing trainer Freddie Roach - "I quit the game 5 fights too late. I know what it takes to be a champion but it takes a lot of beating to realize that knowing is different from doing. Things I could not do, I teach, - I may not have been a champion, but I surely know who I could train
to be a champion. And that is my destiny !"
Socrates believed that the center of our being was our heart. The later philosophers argued that our brain is the center of our being, Its our choice which one to believe, to be a romantic or to be scientific, but definitely we have to differentiate religion from spirituality so we can really be "free". Seek and you shall find. Dante found paradise in vision of a rose, his metaphor for the purest kind of love. Mark Twain created his own down to earth version relating his young life in the Mississippi. Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges found paradise "as a kind of a library". But more interestingly, Jose Feliciano, blind since birth found love in the most unexpected places through his music.
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