Quote:you didn't bother to answer this part of my post...

 

"If it's already predetermined, then there is nothing we can do to alter it, so I can quit my job, become a public assistance dependant and ride life out on the system until destiny arrives, rather than work 60 hours a week and decide for myself where and what direction I want to steer my life towards?

 

Who chooses our destiny? Who said they could do that? What if I don't like my destiny? When does my destiny get determined? How do I know when I have reached my destiny? Have I already reached my destiny?"

 

It may not be your destiny to quit your job and go on public assistance.

 

Your destiny is determined by a whole bunch of inputs and situations.   Where you are now, who you are now, and everything that has happened before, that all determines your destiny.   Like billiard balls on a billiard table.   They don't move themselves, they react to inputs of energy from other objects. 

 

Because you are informed of the fact that your life will be a lot easier if you continue to work and struggle for success (however you define it), your reaction is not to quit your job, but to continue to work.   If you do not believe your life will be easier if you continue to work, then you might quit your job and go on public assistance.   This apparent choice is determined in part by previous inputs to your knowledge base.   That is how your destiny wound up being work and not public assistance.   That which has gone before has determined that which came after.  The knowledge is accumulated, you add it all up, you continue to work.   It's a decision, but it's not free will.   It's just adding things up and getting an answer.  2+2=4.   "Effort on my part = an easier life, therefore, I will exert effort."

 

You don't quit your job because you know what will happen if you quit your job.   That knowledge is a result of past occurrences: reading, talking, observing.   In that way, the past has determined the future.  

 

Knowing you have a destiny doesn't mean you cease all effort and just sit around.   That's a complete misunderstanding of the concept.  We have to operate as if we have free will, even if we actually don't actually have free will.   Because if we don't act as if we have free will, then we destroy ourselves.   That's why this is a mostly academic discussion that shouldn't have a whole lot of effect on our behavior.   And that's why we shouldn't overreact when we realize that we are simply passengers in this thing called existence.  

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