Living without predestination

Different people have different beliefs about destiny. Some people believe that the universe moves along the stream of time under a plan, an intelligently crafted plan usually authored by a sentient agent, which gives the assurance that it all works out for the best. These people believe in destiny. Some people think that, regardless of the existence of a “sentient designer” or not, the laws of the universe pre-direct its course as it passes across time. One event inevitably and inexorably causes another from the big bang to the ultimate heat death. These people too, believe in a mechanical, physicsy sort of destiny.

Destiny, either by grand design or determinism of physical phenomena. Photo from Sandman: Endless Nights

Then there are the people who believe that there is an element of randomness in the universe, that each cause may give rise to multiple possible effects which are chosen at random within the constraints of each effect’s probability. To these people, the world decides what happens next by probability, chance, and nature’s changing course untrimm’d, and they don’t believe in destiny.

There are many variations in between these three, and maybe there are people who haven’t really thought about the destiny question yet, but these are basically the three major pieces of the pie.

Anyway, I’m rambling on about destiny because today (or sometime ago to you) somebody asked me about destiny, I forgot exactly what the question was. The answer that followed is the shorter gist of what I’m gonna talk about here. I was actually surprised with my own answer, as it just sort of coagulated right in front of my mind from bits of ideas I already had. So here it is.

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The problem with destiny

The answer as to whether destiny exists or not, at first glance, may compel a reasonable person to think about how to live her life.

Those people who believe in destiny, whether the grand design which concludes in the best possible ending (call this the grand design hypothesis), or the deterministic behavior of physical laws acting on the universe (call this the determinism hypothesis), will encounter a problem. If one is already destined to take a course of action, are we really making our own choices in our lives? If the everything that happens next has already been determined anyway, doesn’t that mean we have no say in our future?

The second problem is exclusive to the grand design hypothesis. If everything works out for the best anyway, as it is destined to do so, what is the point of choosing the course of action which is most likely to benefit me? If whatever I choose, it all works out for the best anyway, then I could choose the worst course of action and it will still be part of the grand design to the perfect future.

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How scenarios play out

There is a fact that becomes overlooked when it comes to the destiny question.

Enter thesis statement:

Even if either a grand design or determined future exists, we don’t know what it is. And since we don’t know what the outcome is, the existence of destiny becomes irrelevant to living one’s life. We should all live our life in the assumption that there is no destiny.

Let me explain my conclusion a bit. Even if destiny exists, we don’t know how it proceeds into the future. Therefore, in our point of view, the future be just as unpredictable as if there was no destiny at play. If it is, you might as well choose the best decisions assuming that there is no destiny. Here’s my train of thought on a thought experiment:

1. You are faced with an important life choice wherein you can take two possible courses of action.

2. Assuming there is a determined future, whether designed, “optimized for goodness” or neither, you still don’t know said future.

3. Therefore, you don’t know which course of action will lead you to the destined result.

4. But you know that whatever you choose is destined result, so at this point, what you will do next determines what is destiny.

5. If you choose the course of action which is likelier to give a more profitable result, you might not know what your future destiny holds, but it probably work out in your favor since, as we said, you chose the choice which had a higher chance of giving success.

6. Now you are making a decision based on the outcome likeliest to give a benefit to you, as if the future is not determined yet. You are acting as if there was no destiny.

If you are a skeptical proponent of the grand design hypothesis, you might think that that takes care of the first problem of destiny. But how about the second problem?

1. The past tells us that though there might be a perfect possible future, things don’t always come out peachy for everyone. A lot of people in the past lived horrible lives, and if there is a grand design, their horrible lives are part of them. Thus we have established that though the grand design might be the best possible plan, it still doesn’t work out well for everybody.

2. Therefore, going back to the thought experiment, if you choose a course of action which likely to give a harmful result, you may find that though the future is bright all things considered, you are in the part of the future which is not as bright as everywhere else.

3. Which means that, like the determinist before you, you must also choose the course of action which is likeliest to give a positive outcome so that it will have been destined that you in particular will have a good outcome in the overall bright future.

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What this means for Harry Potter

Picture this. Harry Potter is a character from a book, and what happens in his life is predetermined by Harry’s author. What if, in the middle of the story, I tell Harry that he’s in a work of fiction?

If Harry thinks like me, he would proceed through the story as if his actions aren’t determined. He would save the world and kill Voldemort.

Why? Harry doesn’t know how the story ends, but he knows that whatever he does is part of the story. If he acts like a hero, that means that he’s in a story where he wins against Voldemort. For Harry, that’s a better story than one where Voldemort takes over the world.

Now, what if I tell him that it will be a happy ending? Does that change things? No. That’s because Harry may know that the ending is happy overall, he doesn’t know if it’s happy for everybody he cares about. So he must act to save everybody because if he does so, the story will be about him saving everybody. Harry already knows that the story ends in a happy ending, but he ensures that the story includes the safety of as many innocents as he can save by acting like a hero.

Just as if there was no destiny.

If destiny exists, to the being observing the universe on the outside, everything is predetermined. To a being observing from within the universe, no plan can be observed, so that observer might as well act as if there isn’t any.

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Meanwhile, in real life…

Tedious as that explanation was, I think it was necessary because I do have some things I want to say to people about living life.

Live life as if there is no destiny. Base your actions on how you want the future to be. Base them on which is likeliest to give the desired outcome. Yes, it is possible that you were predestined to make that choice. However, you know that whatever you do will have been what is destined, it is what will have been printed on the story of the universe, so if you choose based on what will give the most good, that means that the story of the universe is about you getting what you want.

Don’t live life with the self assurance that there is a plan that involves a bright future. That may be real, but history tells us that you may be the exception of that bright future. You have to do your best so that that bright future includes you.

Don’t be too concerned about the fact that you are just a cogwheel in a determined universe, because you don’t know what the future holds, so regardless of the existence of destiny or not, you don’t know what happens next. It will feel exactly as if there was no destiny. It will be like reading a new book where you don’t know how the story ends. The events have already been written, but the main character still has to make his decisions to get to the next page. It might even have a happy ending after all.

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And if you have read through all that text up to this point, you’re awesome