I heard this life is just a play with no rehearsal…

Finally getting back to addressing freedom of will after a few days. Got caught up in some other thoughts, but here we go… 

If I contend that this universe is a trap, a perfectly executed plan to entrap the devil. Do I believe in freedom of will? Because, if everything is essentially pre-determined in a way, are we actually experiencing it? Or are we purely a product of our environment? I wonder if it can be both in a way… 

I think that God understands humans and this universe so well, that he could devise a plan, that would almost appear predetermined, but there was the undetermined variable, the devil… so I don’t think we are moving about a fixed predetermined universe, rather it is just planned that well, down to the birds and bees and everything. For all we know, we could be exceptionally easy for God to understand, perhaps even ants to ourselves in our heavenly mind and bodies. 

But, I wonder if we can experience freedom of will on an individual level, but that God can even understand what we are going to think, even given that situation. Saying, that we have moments of freedom of will, but God knows what we are going to think. Bur, that may be paradoxically wrong, we may only get close to achieving true freedom of will here and there but are still limited by this universe and our environment. 

It definitely hurts the brain, thinking that everything is planned, and you are essentially moving about a predetermined universe and timetable, that the bug you swatted away from your face today was meant to happen precisely as planned. Perhaps that bug inspired you to buy bug spray, which you went to the store and opened a door for the guy behind you, it cheered that person up, they decided to buy their spouse flowers, their spouse was so… etc…  That it is all essentially one big planned butterfly effect from beginning to end.  

It can make you feel out of control, but you realize that you still have to walk the path, that it may be best to just put it in the back of your mind…. There is nothing you can do about it, whether it drives you nuts or not is even meant to happen right? 

As Janelle Monae says in one of her songs, “I heard this life is just a play with no rehearsal.” Which, is hard to disagree with given my belief system. Can we experience planned freedom of will? That our thoughts can be our own? or is that paradoxically wrong. 

I would argue, even if everything is in its own way predetermined, our inventions and ideas to an extent may still be that of our own. Because God was thinking what we would be thinking about when he made the plan, so it’s like we could have invented something before we were even created. Our ideas preceded us in existence in a way. 

Interesting to think about anyways…