Phil’s Blog

Destiny, Will, or is it a combination of the two? How much control does one has? Even within one’s thoughts, who decides the order? Behind every decisions one has control over one’s actions however, one has no control over the circumstances surrounding him or her. One forges a belief, a hope, a reason and purpose for his or her existence. Some will say it is all predestine; such is the way of the many religions. The Muslims believe that, “all was once written”, where the statement, “Coulo Maktoub”. The Jews view each day as new creation, where the statement, “meradesh col yom mi radash”. The Christians followed the Jews in the statement that nothing new is found under the sun, “ain radash mitarat a shemesh”, in the sense that the creation is at it was created in the beginning, which permits the belief in prophecies. However, all religions agree that in the hand of man to change, and become good. According to those it will appear that it is a combination of the two, destiny and will.
Now, what do I think, and why?
It is evident that I did not choose to be born, or chose my gender, race or nationality, nor did I choose to be a member of the human specie, so it is easy to conclude that at least in regard to those factors I had little to say, and such may have been related to destiny.
Now since, a human I am, I see that a gift was bestowed upon me, the one of awareness, and in particular, self-awareness.
Why is it necessary for me to understand my own being, and understand my surrounding? Could human not be as the stone, the plants or the animals, which live or are without much conflict within themselves (and I do not mean with others- but inner struggle)? I will also not argue with those that will propose that we are in all just energy, energy which vibrates at various frequencies and such defines our consistency, for this I am not aware of it but from the studies of others, and their eloquent theory printed in many books.
One thing I am aware of is that the awareness of my surrounding is essential to my survival, and it is acquired through the process of learning. So here already one characteristic is discovered, and this is the capability to learn, and adapt. But here I already hear, the argument that animals and plants do alike, and they too seem to adapt to their environment and learn to live within it. But we all know that this is not completely true, for if it was, we will see animals in the cities, which were built after the destruction of natural ground, where animals of all kinds did live. It appears that they were removed form their environment and even some got extinct. While the human seems to keep on moving from place to place, and develop new things, new tools, and new surrounding to fit its necessities, and this is very specific to mankind.
So we agree that indeed mankind has he capability to learn. One first learns to differentiate between which is good to which is bad for its survival. And this started from the first man, even if today one learns all this from one’s parents or society.
This learning is done simultaneously within me, self awareness, and towards the outside world, the understanding of my surrounding. From this one can conclude that Learning is inert to mankind, and imperative for its survival.
If all was destine to be, then learning will have no purpose, and we will be no different than the animals and just behave according to our instincts. So already it seems that we arrived to the understanding that both are intertwined, and that the greater part of one’s life is into one’s hands.
But what is the will? In a previous blog, I presented the concept of freedom, which was connected to the necessity for rationality, for to be free but not being able to develop a decision making would be futile and even ridicule of a characteristic. However, how much of one decision is willed, rather than being forced by one’s surrounding?
I would like to have some of your input on the subject, before I continue with my thought process, and post the next part of this philosophical question.
What do you think? Is will a predominant part of one’s life, or is one mostly react to things?