Musings

So is there really such a thing as choice? Or is everything predestined? If there is destiny, who decides it? Of course there will be those that proclaim God in His/Her infinite wisdom as the 1 who determines it but what about free-thinkers and aetheists? A thought that has been playing on the dark edges of my mind for quite a while now...discussed this with some of my friends before...
anyway, maybe some examples will help clear my mind:

It seems painfully obvious that certain things are 'destined' so to speak. For instance, the fact that I have XY chromosomes instead of XX. I'm pretty sure I didn't have a say in what gender I wanted to be. When the sperm met the ovum - it's highly unlikely that these 2 gametes sat down, had a discussion and decided what they would form right?
I also was destined to be in my family, to be born in Malaysia, to have chronic eczema, to have 3 testicles...nah, kidding about the last one :P

What I did have a 'choice' in however were the courses I wanted to take, how I lived my daily life, going for a week to Redang to help save the turtles, getting a PS2, writing this blog among others.

So it does seem that there are such things as destinies and choices. Yet...if you think further, another theory is that everything is predestined. In this case everything really means everything. All the possible paths you could take during your life has been preordained - the difference is in which path you 'choose' to take. In this case is anything you do truly a 'free choice' so to speak?

Take the friends that you love and care about. Remember how you met them and developed a relationship?
Now think about this. If free choice really exists, then your meeting was simply due to pure chance - probability, if you will. It so happened that you both chose your current course and met and decided to forge a friendship. Had you have chosen a different course, you would not have met this person but probably met a different person.
If it was decreed that the 2 of you would meet, then obviously you 2 would meet, somehow or another, no matter what course you are doing wherever in the world no?

What about karma then? Is it possible that due to events in your past lives, in the current one you meet? Is this then destiny?

So I currently figure that there are a few possible explanations:

• <>Destiny is determined by some higher power
  
• <>Destiny is events in your past life that have shaped your current life
• Certain things are predestined and others are choices
• Everything that happened is purely due to chance, you got where you are by choosing your path

Now if destiny exists, there must be an Ultimate Destiny for each person - a reason why they are on this planet. Does everyone realise what they are here for and how would they go about completing their goal? What then if this person's goal is done?

....my head aches...