God Must Die

chapter 8

"If it was always true to say that it was or would be, it could not not be, or not going to be. But if something cannot not happen, it is impossible for it not to happen; and what cannot not happen necessarily happens. Everything, then, that will be will be necessarily." -Aristotle (De Interpretatione)

The case for the existence of destiny had always been subjective. Galileo's father, Alfred Morris Dalmian, had lived his entire life on the same views as Aristotle's Logical Fatalism. Destiny was a result of the driving force of necessity and that fatalism was the thesis that whatever happened must've had happened, but it should not be conflated with the completely innocuous idea that whatever that would happen, would happen; the avouchment of necessity in the occurrence of every event or state of affairs.

Galileo, on the other hand, hadn't been living with the same notion, although Einstein's Theory of Relativity made the argument stronger for fatalism, yet disputable, implying that the existence of space-time could mean that all actions, and all changes were encompassed by the 4D hyperspace, and that all past and future events already existed; the lives of everyone were paths through the already-determined space-time.

He could refute that by allowing quantum mechanics, which had been incompatible, still, with relativity as of the time being, in the picture, then there would be no fatalism nor would there be determinism, only probabilities. Quantum mechanics changed the picture radically.

The million dollar question was whether destiny and free will existed, considering all the variables.

"Well, free will has nothing to do with quantum mechanics," Aleksandr said on the other line. "The equations of quantum mechanics strictly determine the probability of what will happen, but do not necessarily determine what will happen. If you think about it, if our freedom of choice should follow the idea of determinism, then it is the opposite of the freedom of choice itself, since we know how it is supposed to work."

Galileo pursed his lips and thought for a few seconds. "Like most macroscopic systems, we are unpredictable beings. When one talks about free will, they refer free will as the behavior that is not determined by external constraints, nor is it determimed by the psychological description of our neutral states that we access. Our ignorance on why we make choices gives us the reason to question the things we ought not to understand."

There was a brief silence on the other line and he was certain that the guy was nodding, and thinking. "The question is whether the unification of both theories could answer the big question about free will."

He let out a snicker.

"And the unification, that master theory is one of the toughest nuts to crack," Leo replied. "Wait...why are we talking about this again?" he asked, blinking, lost in thought for a brief second.

He could picture out Aleksandr rolling his eyes even when he couldn't see him. "Because this girl has been all around you, and your big-ass brain can't figure out why."

Leo pouted. "Yeah, I can't figure out why."

"Maybe because you aren't supposed to figure that out?" he suggested. Leo pouted even more. "Maybe you're just questioning everything as a result of the big question you cannot answer?"

Natawa siya sa sinabi nito. "You're getting philosophical."

"Zavali yebalo. Why do I feel like you're staying in that country more than you should because of that girl?"

Leo laughed before shaking his head. He almost took it as a joke, after all, he had never seen himself getting romantically-involved. Never in his life had he engaged in a serious romantic relationship. He just didn't have time for that even if he wanted to. "I have no time for love. It's just that I do not know why I see her everytime."