If the future is what you make it, and is therefor predetermined by the character of the those who shape it, than is that character quantifiable through examination of the events in history? How do we separate cause from effect in observing human behavior?
This question dates back to the earliest philosophers, and crosses with a deeper conundrum, which for brevity purposes, will not be expounded here. That is, The nature of human experience. Still, it's worth noting that science and philosophy, and the careful study of history have brought us closer to explaining how things happen in life, and why. At the root of the issue in determining the nature of our experiences in time, is assigning responsibility to events happening in the world.
Lets say that the two sides of the great debate can be settled thusly:
From Day 0, Hour 0, Minute 0, second 0.000....0001, our Universe has moved forward as a result of the natural forces at work in it. The origins of which generally, we cannot, and perhaps never will, fully understand. Who created God?
Recent scientific discoveries demonstrate infallibly that a photon of light, while observed, will take a specific path along it's trajectory. Seems about right.
However because it's a photon, and not say... a piece of toast, it's also got the strange habit of going through all possible trajectories when it is not observed.
If a tree is in the woods, it's both standing and fallen until it is observed.
A cat in a box with a precarious vial of deadly poison is both alive and dead.
The fundemental natural forces that define the movement of energy and matter in the observable universe could have been different. Even if just one of these universal forces were to deviate in strength, area of effect or charge, even a slight amount, life on Earth, and perhaps anywhere in any galaxy, might never have been possible.
Bring us now to planet earth, page 1, chapter two, 4.7 billion years ago. A silly little molecule goes and does something nobody would expect. It creates an exact replica of itself. Life begins. Even more surprisingly, both "copies" survive to do it again. This is where things get a little tricky. This molecule's little dance will begin a chain of events that will eventually give rise to the earliest forms of single cell organisms, and from there, to the beginnings of what we commonly term 'Consciousness', in it's most basic form.
Click ahead a few thousand chapters to the day before yesterday, when you're sitting at your desk or table wondering "Why are we here? Where did it all go wrong? Is the tea ready yet? Who's to blame? "
In the courthouse, it is not a sufficient argument to state that the "universe made me do it" so we must then look at the individual, and try and determine what makes a person who she is, and what makes him do the things he do (so well). In order to find an answer, we've got to further define the question:
"Would I have done the same thing if I lived the same life she did?" Or
"Does my mind have some unique nature separate from my environment that drives me to behave according to particular traits of my character?
In other words, could Jesus have walked on water if he had been born with no legs?
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