Stop and think about it...
You ever stop and think about life. I mean really stop and think about life? I took some philosophy calles in college, and at the time, I just did the work to get a good grade, I never really thought about what philosophy was all about. But now that Im older (and hopefully wiser), I started thinking about what life was really about. So I started doing some research and there are some fascinating theories out there. There are two that I have read about that really peaked my interest. They are pretty much 180 degrees from one another, but each makes their own interesting arguments.
Im by no means an expert on this, so some of the terminology I may have wrong. The 1st theory is predetermination. The basic points of predetermination is that free will is just an illusion. Supposidly, free will and reasoning are two qualities that make us superior to animals. But what if our lives are predetermined the moment we are born. One of the things about life is that you need to make a choice and go with it. We make choices all through our lives. We pick which schools we want to go to. What subject we wanted to major in. Who we want to marry. Where we want to live. I look at my choice to move to Virginia as a perfect example. In my mind I weighed the pros and cons, and made a conscious decision that I wanted to move. At least thats what I like to think. Maybe I didn't really make a choice at all. Maybe I was destined to move from New York.
What if I hadn't moved? Where would I be working? Where would I be living? Am I married? If so, who did I marry? What would have become of Rachel? If she hadn't met me, would she have gone back to school? Would she be married now? Would she still live in Virginia? Would she be happy? How different would our lives be, if we weren't together. When I look at things that way, it almost seems like predetermination or destiny is 100% believable. Things just feel right, I feel like her and I were meant to be together. I feel like we complete one another. I'd like to think that Rachel and I are like 2 pieces of a puzzle, and her and I are the only two pieces that fit together. But what if that's not the case? Think about this for your own life. How you came to meet your signifigant other and how they changed your life, and how you changed theirs.
My father was injured during WWII. He was hit in the ear by a piece of metal from an explosion. He nearly bled to death. What if he did bleed to death. What if he didn't get medical care in time? He would have never met my mom, I would never have been born, my sisters would never have been born. Their kids would have never been born. I guess this is sort of like "It's a Wonderful Life". You never know how many peoples lives you influence.
This leads me to the 2nd theory which subscribes to the belief that the slighest action, can trickle down and have disastrous results. Often times, serial killers become the way they are based on interaction with an influential person in their lives. Jeffrey Dahmer was molested as a child, by a neighbor. Dahmer parents moving to that particular house, put a young Dahmer in contact with a molestor. What if they had picked another house to live in? By the age of 10, Dahmer was experimenting with animals. Decapitating rodents, bleaching chicken bones with acid, nailing dog carcasses to trees. What if someone had intervened at this point and got him the help he so desperately needed? How many lives could have been saved?
I could go on for hours, but I won't. Just something to think about.
Im by no means an expert on this, so some of the terminology I may have wrong. The 1st theory is predetermination. The basic points of predetermination is that free will is just an illusion. Supposidly, free will and reasoning are two qualities that make us superior to animals. But what if our lives are predetermined the moment we are born. One of the things about life is that you need to make a choice and go with it. We make choices all through our lives. We pick which schools we want to go to. What subject we wanted to major in. Who we want to marry. Where we want to live. I look at my choice to move to Virginia as a perfect example. In my mind I weighed the pros and cons, and made a conscious decision that I wanted to move. At least thats what I like to think. Maybe I didn't really make a choice at all. Maybe I was destined to move from New York.
What if I hadn't moved? Where would I be working? Where would I be living? Am I married? If so, who did I marry? What would have become of Rachel? If she hadn't met me, would she have gone back to school? Would she be married now? Would she still live in Virginia? Would she be happy? How different would our lives be, if we weren't together. When I look at things that way, it almost seems like predetermination or destiny is 100% believable. Things just feel right, I feel like her and I were meant to be together. I feel like we complete one another. I'd like to think that Rachel and I are like 2 pieces of a puzzle, and her and I are the only two pieces that fit together. But what if that's not the case? Think about this for your own life. How you came to meet your signifigant other and how they changed your life, and how you changed theirs.
My father was injured during WWII. He was hit in the ear by a piece of metal from an explosion. He nearly bled to death. What if he did bleed to death. What if he didn't get medical care in time? He would have never met my mom, I would never have been born, my sisters would never have been born. Their kids would have never been born. I guess this is sort of like "It's a Wonderful Life". You never know how many peoples lives you influence.
This leads me to the 2nd theory which subscribes to the belief that the slighest action, can trickle down and have disastrous results. Often times, serial killers become the way they are based on interaction with an influential person in their lives. Jeffrey Dahmer was molested as a child, by a neighbor. Dahmer parents moving to that particular house, put a young Dahmer in contact with a molestor. What if they had picked another house to live in? By the age of 10, Dahmer was experimenting with animals. Decapitating rodents, bleaching chicken bones with acid, nailing dog carcasses to trees. What if someone had intervened at this point and got him the help he so desperately needed? How many lives could have been saved?
I could go on for hours, but I won't. Just something to think about.
2 Comments:
I often wonder about these things, what if i went to another college, would I have met Ani. etc etc.
And the other theory, is similar to things brought up in Sleeper Cell, had Tommy not been kicked out of the army would he have become a Jihadist?
Yeah its really freaky how different our lives could have been if we made slightly different choices in our lives.
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