The Meaning of Life

Equally you can say that it is infinitely probable that the frog will remain a frog, and the table will remain a table -at least for the next five minutes. Which introduces the concept of time. Eventually the frog will die, and maybe its body will help feed an acorn which becomes an oak which is then made into a table!

If the universe runs by the Newtonian laws of dynamics, i.e. Action causes reaction, then everything is ultimately determined. Man can only have free will if the universe is actually indeterminate (i.e. anything could happen and we can affect the course of events). But personal experience shows us that this is not the case, and that strict, unbreakable laws appear to be governing the universe. Which means that we have no free will. But we all think that we can decide how to run our lives! There seems to be no way to resolve the two possibilities

However there is one solution to the problem. That is to say that contrary to popular belief, the universe is totally indeterminate. So a frog could suddenly and without warning turn into a table. It is just that the chances of it doing so are infinitely improbable.

It is at this point that man may have genuine free will, which becomes the ability to add a personal input into the balance to swing the chances of the event occurring from 50% to 51%
This has put another factor, “energy” into the equation and from a philosophical viewpoint this could include the indefinable “psychic” energy, as well as the more recognised physical forms. Free Will is then seen as a form of psychic energy. The more unlikely it us that an event will occur, then the greater the amount of energy that will have to be put in to swing the balance from the improbable to the probable.

This now gives a model for a universe where miracles and magick can occur -as the apparently impossible can now be made possible as the skilled miracle worker (or magickian) is simply using his psychic energy to affect the balance of probability according to his own free will.

The key to the dilemma is to understand the mathematical concept of probability. This says that at any one moment of time the likelihood of an event are occurring can be measured as percentage. 100% probable (better still infinitely probably) says that it will occur. 100% improbable (or infinitely improbable) says that it will not. But between 100% probable and 100% improbable there is a gradient, which means that right in the middle there is a 50% probability point. Equal chances of being a frog or a table.

Determinism, Indeterminisn,
Free Will, a frog and a table

And the big question is...
“Does Man have free will?

Or are we just a lot of balls in a great celestial game of billiards?”