Sunday, February 2, 2014

Fate, Prophecy, Freewill?

Is there a way to escape fate?  An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge argues that there is no way to escape one's fate.  The narrator in this short story vividly pictures his life if he were to escape his death, yet still ends up dying.  Sam and Dean in "Supernatural" test the power of prophecy to see if they can escape their fate. Once they realize that their lives have been dictated by prophecy, they fight for their lives and are able to change the immediate future, but the end of the episode indicates that more danger lies ahead and they have not changed truly their fate.

Are our own lives fated?  Are we living lives that have calculated obstacles and predetermined ends?  This short story and television episode display examples of predestined lives.  Supernatural even goes as far as saying that everything we say and do is calculated.  When Dean and Sam are at the laundromat, Dean reads the book and tells Sam that everything he is saying and doing is written in the book of their prophesied lives.  Do the smallest decisions we make on a day to day basis that seem insignificant actually lead us to our fated ends?  While it may seem outlandish to consider, the truth may be that our lives have already been carved out for us.  Does that make our decisions true if there is no freewill?

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