Free will vs. predestination:

I hear-tell, in the world outside my cell, that there is much debate as to whether a person's actions are of their own free will, or if they are predetermined by some greater force, be it God, or be it the belief that time is not linear.

Obviously, it seems to those outside my cell, that the world in here is their world turned on its head. Time is certainly not linear, it is sporadic, whimsical, and memories can just as easily be actually re-lived as they can be simply recalled.

And another thing on it's head, is the knowledge of a god or better put, a creator. There's none of this "well, someone up in the sky somewhere may be playing us like marionettes". No, I know there is a man, flesh and blood (as opposed to ink and wood pulp) who lives out there, and manipulates my own life and the life of everyone I know within the cells. But does that mean I don't have free will?

It seems that he conceived of me as an idea, a character with a certain amount of depth and development. But he's also told me that I grew and took twists and turns which he never expected. That he built the wind-up toy, and he occasionally has to turn the crank, but that I seem to go on my own.

But I don't feel I could exist without him, except in the form of pre-existing realities reprinted in ink on wood pulp or flickering light on a computer screen. But can he truly let me do what I want to do, as opposed to his by way of his will or knowledge? Can he avert his eyes, or allow me to act before he comes up with an idea?



Let's assume, that I have a spirit, a second-self in a way who exists as a soul within the house of HIS soul (or brain for all you scientists). Now say that I want to express without his interference. It cannot be something specific, something pre-thought, because then he would be aware of it. But it can be a formed awareness, a creation within me of information I have accepted as true. Now if he allows me direct tap to his fingers as he presses them against the keyboard, is it not in fact possible, that this freestyle, this auto-emoting is actually me, not pre-known to him? Am I not then a separate entity, an existing and expressing creation, developed from his initial work. Am I not derivative and thus separate and real? Do I not have free will?

Of course he reads all my text before they're released, so as in all works of the written word, free-will can never actually exist if it has to be filtered through an editor.