Free will or Fate?

He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned. ~Author Unknown

Was discussing this with a dear friend of mine recently. Are the events that happen with us decreed by fate or does free will have a role to play? If I meet with a accident and break a leg then was my careless driving responsible for this or was this fated to happen as a balancing act for all the negative karma that I seem to have stockpiled? If you think about this you realize that it is impossible to prove or disprove this either way. This question has been the base of most religions. If one assumes that all the things that happen to us are a result of previous deeds then is it free will in play or is it fate?

Dumping everything on fate seems to be the easy way out for lazy shit heads like me. Assuming that you have control over everything appears reassuring and terrifying at the same time. Some times it is easy to decide – you study hard and you do well in exams – free will; you buy a lottery ticket and you win the 50 million prize money – fate. But at other times it is dicey – you contract cancer although you have the healthiest life style and puke at the very mention of booze or cigarettes – fate? Even if you blame genes for this – the fact that you were born to a particular set of parents among the millions of couple heaving between sheets every night weighs heavily on the side of fate. You are planning to woo your college sweetheart in the park on a dry summer night and it pours buckets (although the weatherman had cheerfully predicted a dry and dusty night) – tough luck? Fate? Unless of course your beloved is wearing a flimsy chiffon nothing and you have a sicko bent of mine like yours truly, it has to be your old nemesis – fate – deciding on this very night to collect on some of your collected karmic debts.

Wouldn’t it be simply great if it was proved conclusively that everything is fated. All the good things are serendipity and all the bad things are decreed. We would thank our stars for every happy event and simply lie back and take destiny take its course for every unpleasant event without so much as batting an eyelid. But the fact is that this will never be proved. Hence we will continue to struggle on vainly – crying our hearts out at the tiniest perceived insult and rejoicing over our token victories. That – it appears – is the fate of humankind but then that is also the very thing that makes this life worth living. What say?