The Future

Since my midteens I have wrestled with the concept of the future and determinism. If the future is fixed, how can there be accountability? If God has already determined what will happen and laid out the course of my life, am I just going through the motions? I believe that in order for life to be worth living, there has to be some element of surprize, even for God. God may know the probabilites of what we creatures will do and when the odds are high, God will even know the outcome. If we pay attention, so will we. We pretty much know what will happen if we drop a fragile glass bowl onto the pavement from a 200 story building. But I think that things become fuzzier as the odds go closer to 50-50. Then an element of chance comes to play.

In the book The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho, a camel driver consults a seer and the seer raises the question of why he would even want to know the future:

Then, one day, the oldest seer he had ever sought out (and the one most to be feared) had asked why the camel driver was so interested in the future.
“Well . . . so I can do things,” he had responded. “And so I can change those things that I don’t want to happen.”
“But then they wouldn’t be a part of your future.” the seer had said.
“Well, maybe I just want to know the future so I can prepare myself for what is coming.”
“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise,” said the seer. “If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.”
“I want to know about the future because I’m a man, the camel driver had said to the seer. “And men always live their lives based on the future.