> Jerry Notaro wrote: > > Well, as the Jesuits always told us, there are no absolutes, except that > there are no absolutes
Yeah, I always knew Jesuits were a clever bunch. Reminds me of a professor I had in college who told the class on the last day of the school year: " Remember, I believe in moderation in everything including moderation". On the topic of determinism: there has been several french movies which are constructed on the idea that one insignificant decision could change the entire course of future events. So the movie shows you the 4-5 totally different scenarios that could develop whether for instance the lead character lights up a cigarette or not or puts on a red or a white dress. Since it's widely known that President Mitterand and plenty more politicians and public figures do, I am not ashamed to admit that I have been a regular patron of astrologers, psychics, etc for about 20 years, but with moderation of course. I don't need to be convinced of the (ir)rationality of it. Suffice it to say that the many times they've been right have baffled me enough so I know something is going on, whatever it is. Anyway, my point is this: knowing that something is going to happen doesn't mean you don't have the free will to affect the future. I can already see skeptics saying: " if you change the future and the event does not happen, how do you know it would have happened if you hadn't?" Well I don't in that case, except that when I didn't change my future in other cases, the prediction often came true. I'm really not trying to convince anybody here. So the conclusion is: we have free will otherwise we'd be actors in a movie that has already been written (Matrix?). From a religious standpoint, how else could we "do good" and "improve ourselves" if we didn't have free will? God's intent is certainly not to watch a movie where it's all pre-determined. But then, if things are not pre-determined, how can psychics foretell? Perhaps they foresee the most probable scenario, but then it's still up to you to change it? Don't have the answer. Laurent
