Fate

[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]

Hmm... I think I'm taking a more umm... different kinda, interpretation. Let's face it, we can't change the future because we don't know what's coming in the future. That's why I say everything's set in stone. I'm not saying it's set by some higher power, it's just set by the fact that we don't know what's coming so it's coming whether we like it or not. That doesn't take away our ability to make decisions, it's just those decisions are going to be made. The only way we can change the future, and thus have a future that isn't predetermined, is to be able to accurately see the future.