Choice or Pre-determination?

Do we as human beings have the ability to make choices and influence our future?  An interesting question about which few of us debate or even care, unless one is a perpetual student of Philosophy.

Well, be that as it may, I have often wondered about this question myself several times and the more I think about it, the more perplexed I become.

 I am fascinated by this notion of “choice,” and do we actually make choices or is our life pre-determined?  Of course, I am in a minority when taking the pre-determined side, as everyone wants to believe that they are in control.

 But, if one’s future has already been seen, then does one really have control over one’s life by continuing to make choices.  I am going to need a bicycle wheel to illustrate my point, which you see below.

Ok, now the wheel is above.  Let’s image this wheel without any spokes first.  What we have left is the large tire, and the inner hub that has an opening in the middle.  Ok, now let’s say that the opening represents earth as we know it today.  And, let’s say that the tire represents the outer edge of the universe, also as we know it today (even though the Hubble Telescope has proven that our Universe is still expanding).  If we roll our wheel down a smooth surface (imagine that the spokes are re-attached), then we can easily see that the hub is going to make more complete revolutions that the tire, and the hole inside the hub in going to make more revolutions than the hub.  Now, let’s rest our minds with that thought and turn our focus to airplanes.

Most all of us have ridden in an airplane, right?  Ok, so, you remember that when you looked out the window of the airplane, the ground that you were able to see, seemed to be moving faster than the airplane.  Now, imagine that same illusion occurs but more pronounced the farther one moves out into space.  By the time one moves out to the edge of the universe (relative to a point on the earth), the earth (if you could see it) would be moving so fast it would be a blur, while you seemed to be hardly moving at all.

Ok, break over, let’s return to our wheel and incorporate the illusion of what we see from an airplane window and let’s add a factor of time.  With the factor of time added, time at the edge of the universe (bicycle tire) would be moving slower than time on earth (hole in middle of the hub).  This is not speculation, this is true.

While I cannot give you the time ratio between the edge of the Universe and earth, I could venture to say that for every 100 years that passes on earth, perhaps only an hour elapses at the edge of our Universe.  My numbers may be off a little or a lot but you get my point and see where I am going, right?

So, imagine someone sitting at the edge of the Universe and using some un-imaginable pair of binoculars, watches the 100 years pass on earth.  Now, imagine this person has the capability of returning to earth in the middle of those 100 years; that person would already know the choices that you were going to make for the next 50 years.

So, is it choice or pre-determination?