Explaining Free Will Within The Context Of Fate
I created the diagram above to explain how free will can still exist within a universe where every single thing happens for a reason.
Time is the vehicle used to experience life. We often take for granted that time is linear, having a beginning and an end. But if we consider time as a circle or a loop, then this might suggest that the event known as "Creation" is not something that occurred ages ago, but something that is occurring in the present. This would also suggest that the present is all that is, and that both the past and the future simply refer to our interpretation of the present as seen from a different location on the circle of time.
If this is the case, then at the moment of Creation - this moment - every second of our existence, through out any number of lives we will live, came into existence, separated only by time. Thus, time would then equate to the glue - or the prison - that binds our consciousness to any one location throughout time. Our spirit, on the other hand, exists throughout every point in time, and is with us through any number of lives we will lead.
Within this context, fate does not disprove freewill. Within this context, fate amounts to nothing more than decisions you are currently making elsewhere in time, and our connection to that destiny is our spirit.
While i recognize this is merely an attempt to explain the inexplicable, and that I cannot prove this at all, I do find some comfort in this interpretation of time, consciousness and spirit. For if accurate, it would mean that God's plan, as so many like to call it, was for us to make our own decisions in life. It would mean that our destiny is not something that another demands of us, but something that we decided upon - or are currently deciding upon elsewhere in time - ourselves.
Visions of the future or of past lives can also be explained in this manner, for if the spirit exists everywhere throughout the scope of time, then visions of past or future should be expected to arise when the conscious mind is in harmony with the spirit.
Well, that's at least better than not having time at all =)
I never before thought of Fate in this way
It is liberating to entertain as truth. Though also quite terrifying, for it truly places the importance on our actions and prevents us from dumping our responsibilities onto the Creator.
I always thought of Fate as the evil twin of Destiny.