Current Events > Is everything in the universe predetermined?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think so.

Cause and effect. Action and reaction. A boulder rolls down a hill and crushes against a wall. As soon as the boulder started to roll, it was destined to crash against that wall (barring outside interference). But as a universe, there is no outside interference, just trillion of trillions of atoms bouncing off of each other in complex ways.

I don't see how the human mind is any different. We receive input and generate output. It's complex sure, but it's measured and based on real factors. There's no true randomness in nature. Everything that happened happened due to the events that led up to that moment.


And so, just like a fire burning, is the human mind a complex chemical reaction. Maybe our entire lives are predetermined. If there are alternate universes, there's a very good chance that given the same starting point, every single event in the universe would happen exactly identically, because every single atom and sub-atomic particle in it would have interacted in exactly the same way.


But maybe I'm just rambling now.
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Hmm I think there are several things wrong with your logic.

As soon as the boulder started to roll, it was destined to crash against that wall

You'd think so right? Because of your intuition that has led to your ability to predict physical phenomena. But the people that make rockets also think that the rocket was destined to do what it was built for until the rocket turns into a display of fireworks...

There's no true randomness in nature.

Scientific sources say that radioactive decay is a truly random process (can't predict when an atom will emit radioactive particles) so I don't see why I should believe you over them.

Maybe our entire lives are predetermined.

Maybe they are, but unless you have a simultaneous and instant knowledge of the location of every particle in the universe, who cares? The more correct answer based on practicability is that its not.

Quantum

In a way, it is. But only because the universe is infinite. so everything that can has and will happen
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In the grand scheme of things, which no one or thing will ever fully grasp, yes.

Relatively speaking, no.
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Yes
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solosnake posted...

In a way, it is. But only because the universe is infinite. so everything that can has and will happen

If the universe is truly infinite, not only has everything in this world already occurred, it is also currently occurring somewhere else in the universe.
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