[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by Zebodog: quote: Originally posted by Aelia Jusa: quote: Originally posted by Mack_Attack: Cool stories. But every dission we make can be based on the BE. Or is it fate. [img]smile.gif[/img]

No, I don't agree. Most decisions don't have much if any impact on anything else. The fact that I decided to have a bagel this morning instead of cornbread is not going to have any impact on anything - nothing is going to happen or not happen that would be different than if I'd made a different decision. I'm talking about insignificant decisions that you can pinpoint as having lead to unexpected and unrelated effects much later. Choosing my supervisor was a minor decision - my honours performance would not really have been affected with a different supervisor. But that decision did affect what people I met more than a year later. And when I moved out of home! Big effects from a small unrelated decision.

And I don't believe in fate. My destiny is determined by me. And luck, I suppose. [/QUOTE]Interesting but you'll never know the impact that your decision to go with a different supervisor would have made.

[/QUOTE]Yes, of course. Certain things that might have happened if I'd had a different supervisor obviously didn't happen since I made this decision. However, I know (not completely definitively of course, but as much as you can know about things that didn't happen) that things would have turned out differently because, as a result of that decision, I changed my mind about doing certain things (e.g., doing a phd instead of a masters) that I had always intended to do, and can assume that I would have done had I not made this one decision.

Originally posted by Zebodog: Every decision has an impact even something as simple as deciding to have a bagel instead of cornbread but you may not see the impact of that decision. How? Perhaps that decision to purchase a bagel instead of cornbread was the deciding factor for the operator of the local shop to stop ordering cornbread because it wasn't selling very well. That baker of the cornbread was counting on that order to pay mortgage/feed kids etc...Now that he doesn't have the order he can't keep his bakery open and must close the doors, declaring bankruptcy. You're decision to have a bagel, while insignificant in your life had a profound impact on that baker.

Well perhaps. Although I make the cornbread myself and I have already made it - it is in the freezer. I had the bagels and the cornbread - they will all get eaten eventually so the net result is the same. So the poor old baker can rest easy since I will just eat the cornbread tomorrow [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Point taken, however. Although, I think what I am getting at with this thread is where you can be sure of how small decisions lead to unrelated outcomes in the long-term future that could not have been predicted when the original decision was made. As opposed to speculating wildly about what *might* have happened as a result of some action which of course we could do about anything and is fairly silly and pointless, IMHO, of course .

Originally posted by Zebodog: To throw even more confusion your way Are you sure that your destiny is determined by you? Perhaps every decision you've ever made and ever will make is pre-determined? Maybe your life is mapped out from the day you're born to the day you die?

Of course I'm not absolutely sure - I said I don't believe in fate, not that I know for certain that it doesn't exist. However, the idea of fate is one that does not appeal to me in the slightest, as well as not making logical sense as far as I can fathom it, so I am happy to go on believing it doesn't exist [img]smile.gif[/img]