Quote:So if we could rewind time, that is, go back in time, and re-start forward, then what happens after that would be exactly the same thing that happened the first time.   I say that because the identical circumstances would exist as before.   Lincoln would still get assassinated, WWII would still happen, you would still be born, you would still do whatever you did "the first time," you would meet the same people, you would marry the same person, and nothing would change, because all the exact same circumstances would exist.   And the exact same circumstances always produce the exact same result, right?  

 

And the ultimate conclusion we can draw is that the future is set in stone, and has been determined from the time of the big bang.  Because there is only one set of circumstances that exist right now, therefore, there is only one future that exists.   

 

But that all depends on the answer to the first post.   If everything is completely controlled and completely the same, will the result always be the same?    I think people will rebel against this line of reasoning because it implies that we don't really have free will.   If the exact same circumstances always produce the exact same result, then we will always make the exact same decisions and take the exact same actions.    Therefore free will is an illusion. 

 

Someone made a big soup and put a spoon in it and stirred it.   The vegetables all think they are swimming, but in reality, they are not.   They are just being forced along by the laws of nature. 

With this thought process, would that suggest that the people rebelling against the 'lack of free will' know their future/fate?..

 

I know it's all predetermined, and that everything has it's pattern woven in, but the people who are living it at the time don't know that their paths have been laid out due to the fact that they haven't lived it yet? For instance, I would still have to marry my ex-wife, because I don't know any different, right?..

---