Wani Wrote:Predetermination means that everything that happens was meant to happen and that can't be changed. Free will means you're responsible for your own choices. But that doesn't mean that you weren't meant to make those choices.
Like... say... for example, I know with absolute certainty that you'll have toast from breakfast tomorrow. For some unknown reason, I know this. That doesn't matter. I know it, it's fated to happen, but it was still your choice and your free will that led you to have toast and not cereal.
A lot of people will say "No, fate can't exist because I make my own decisions blah blah" but just because you made the decisions, doesn't mean you weren't going to make them anyway. Sorta.
[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]Free will, as I understand it, is a decision made upon which the person making the decision consciously and intentionally goes through with the decision for the sole purpose of achieving one thing - the end result that they made the decision for. Since you're throwing determinism (predetermination) into the mix, then the decision made can no longer be labeled as being made with free will. If the outcome was predetermined, the person making the decision did not make it of his or her own free will. Rather, they were predetermined to make that decision, and even if they were considering other options, they chose THAT decision because it was inevitable. Absolute free will is that a decision was made, and a result achieved because it was made and carried out - end of story, no conclusions about why/how it was made of any sort.
IMO, you can't have the free will to decide something, but also be "meant" to decide something just because.[/COLOR]