The universe as we know it is complex. The philosophies that we live by can be difficult to understand, including the question of whether there is fate or free will in our lives. This is because everyone has a different perception of the world. Some believe that everything that happens in life is for a specific reason; others believe that individuals have control over one’s own life. The concept of having determinism or fate is that everything that happens in life is caused and planned by natural law and cannot be changed. The idea of free will means that people have the capacity to make conscious decisions for themselves. The relationship between the two theories can be difficult to determine, and it is questionable whether the two ideas are related to one another or not.

Determinism and fate do not have a direct relationship because individuals have the ability to make conscious decisions that determine his or her own future. For example, in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five, the main character Billy encounters several negative experiences in his life. Other prisoners mistreated him, he married a woman he did not truly love, and he travelled through time uncontrollably. Despite every negative situation Billy dealt with, he accepted all that happened to him. Because of this, he lived a miserable life. Vonnegut even wrote, “Billy didn’t really like life at all,” (102). Billy did not have to welcome every experience he had. As part of the human race, we have complex minds and brains that give us the ability to think and make conscious decisions. Everyone is able to take responsibility for his or her own actions and change the outcome of a particular situation or circumstance. This is essential in that we can build upon our own futures and work to create results we want to see. We can’t predict the end result of a situation; we can only do what we can to try to change it. Stephen Hawking claimed in his essay “Is Everything Determined?” that, “The real reason why we cannot predict human behavior is that it is just too difficult...it is just too hard to solve the equations when there are more than a few particles involved,” (Hawking 911). We can never know a predetermined result because the world is the most complex thing to ever exist. There are small details in the world that are impossible for everyone to know. We can’t know everything about everyone. It must also be taken into consideration the fact that if there is fate in this world, it is difficult to understand why horrible things happen. For example, consider the Holocaust. It was not any type of fate or plan that led to this genocide. It was the actions and thoughts of the individuals involved. It can’t be accepted that anyone or any outside force would predetermine such a horrific event like the Holocaust. If some people state that everything happens for a reason, how would one explain the reasoning for the Holocaust? There’s no logical explanation. Therefore, determinism and free will do not go hand in hand because we as humans think and act for ourselves.

Those who believe that determinism and free will are directly related state that it is because free will is an allusion of fate. Many people believe in God (including myself) and that He has a plan for everyone. They hold the belief that the actions they take in the course of life do not matter because there is already a plan that has been determined for that specific individual. Hawking claimed that, “Indeed, one could always say that the laws of science are the expression of the will of God,” (Hawking 913). This leads to the idea that the free will we think we have could just be an allusion. Hawking also stated that, “We feel subjectively that we have the ability to choose who we are and what we do. But this may just be an allusion,” (Hawking 911). Free will could be an allusion in that the actions we take and the decisions we think we make for ourselves could already be determined by an outside force--such as God. The free will we think have could be what we were planned to do all along. There is no way of ever knowing.

Overall, there is no direct correlation between determinism and free will due to the fact that the universe is so complex and the human race has the ability to make conscious decisions. Free will is an aspect in our lives. This means that the individual in society has the capability to change his or her personal future. We have control over our own lives, unlike the script of a play. In a play, everything has been determined and written out. In this world, we are constantly changing and rewriting our futures through the actions we take every single day. Nothing is predetermined or laid out in life for us. The decisions we make and the actions we take affect ourselves and our future endeavors. Hawking states in his essay, “One cannot base one’s conduct on the idea that everything is determined because one does not know what has been determined,” (912). Since we do not know what is determined, we may as well believe that only our personal decisions affect us. We have to realize that we are in control of our future so make the right decisions in life to benefit ourselves.