Ok, one of these days I’m actually going to leave a Sunday blank. I swear I will. I just can’t bring myself to do that yet. So, your post today is going to be a little bit different. I spent a good part of the day judging a college Forensics (competitive speaking) tournament. So, your challenge today is to choose one of the following sides, and write a short story that presents an argument supporting the side that you chose.
Your quandry: Determinism vs. Free Will
Broken Mirrors 
Free Will, baby!!
I know this isn’t exactly a story, but I wrote an essay on just this topic some time ago. I think it’s very good (of course I do, it’s mine, my own, my PRECIOUS… ok), but it’s too long in total to post here, so here’s the critical section:
We currently perceive it as a contest between two mutually exclusive wills. Either I decide what I do, or someone else does. If I decide, then no one else can claim credit for my decision. If someone else decides, then I am not responsible for any of my actions. But we are all familiar with a case in which that is not true, and most of us likely explore those situations on a daily, or at least weekly, basis: stories. In a story, the author decides everything that happens. He (or she) writes each character, fills their voices with words, and sets their every choice into place. Yet, when we perceive the story, we cheer along the hero, hate the villain, and praise the loyal side-kick. In the Lord of the Ring, Frodo is acclaimed as a human hero because, after long struggles against the corrupting power of the One Ring, he finally fails and gives in. We feel his turmoil, we weep as he claims the Ring for himself. Yet, wasn’t this all written out by J.R.R. Tolkien? Didn’t he decide how Frodo would end? Isn’t he the puppet-master behind Frodo’s every word and deed? Who, then, do we commend for Frodo’s bravery, and who do we blame for Frodo’s failure; the character who chose, or the author who wrote?
The answer both in this book and in our lives is simple: both. Tolkien set out every step of Frodo’s path, but at the same time Frodo chose his own path. In fact, Tolkien wrote Frodo to choose his own path, and to choose that path. In the same way, God has both predetermined and predestined our every breath, yet we make all our own choices, and must face the consequences of them all. In fact, God predestined us to make our own choices, and to make these choices. So, we are saved by God’s grace, predestined and foreknown from the beginning of time, yet we also each must choose to accept or reject Christ. In the end, there is no contradiction between God’s will and ours, there is no contest, and no balance must be achieved. Instead, our wills and God’s are two perspectives on the same event; one from inside this universe, the other from outside.
Night Terrors.
As usual, criticism is welcome.
And thanks for the challenge!