Churches and Tornados August 18, 2009
Posted by Erik Tomblin in Uncategorized.Tags: churches, existence, Fate, free will, ice cream, mint chocolate chip, tornados
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“It was meant to be.”
That phrase gets tossed around a lot, no matter if “It” is a good thing or bad thing. When a tornado hits a church and people are hurt or killed, it was meant to be. We don’t know the purpose behind it, but people say it was part of the plan (ultimately, a good plan). When a tornado hits an empty church, then it’s considered a miracle in that no one was injured.
One of the simplest but most profound philosophical questions is “Why?” A clever answer, of course, is “Why not?” But it really comes down to whether or not you believe in free will, I suppose. In my novel, The Space Between, the question of whether one can really change the past is central to the story. If one succeeds in changing the past, did it ever really happen anyway?
You can go on forever asking yourself these kinds of questions. There is a middle ground, such as thinking you have free will, but ultimately the end result will be decided by Fate. Then again, what exactly qualifies as an end result? Does Fate have a checklist of things that will happen, that must happen? And is everything in between just a gray area we control? If that’s the case, then you have to wonder just what the end goal is.
If you want to get particular, you can take free will out of the equation and believe that we are built the way we are, our choices are part of that construction, and everything in the universe will act upon itself and its surroundings in the way it is meant to because of its structure, its programming. From the Big Bang on. If you had a computer smart enough, that final goal could be deduced, maybe before it even happened. I’d buy stock in the company that built that.
Or maybe instead of our universe being a sub-particle in a molecule of a blade of grass in some bigger plane of existence, could we be that computer?
Those kinds of thoughts and ideas could keep you busy for months or years, possibly even inducing insanity. Instead of that, maybe I’ll just go get some ice cream. And I’ll choose whatever damn flavor I want.
