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Once an event occurs, good or bad, it’s easy to see it as simply inevitable. After all, it happened, right? How could it have been any other way? For me, second-guessing is a fool’s game—rolling back time and changing the events leading up to it isn’t an option. I don’t waste time on things I can’t change.
But if it couldn’t have been any other way, does that mean we have no free will? Sam Harris may have worked this out, but it’s still a little murky to me. We can certainly choose what to wear each day or what we want to eat. But choosing whether we will have cancer? I don’t think so.
So, I have to wonder how much of what we think of as free will is an illusion. I’ve always acted on the assumption that the choices I make will influence the outcome of my life, but as I get older, I’m not so sure.
Lacking hard evidence, however, I’m going to play it safe.
I’m still taking my vitamins.