I do ^^ I believe we have things in our life we're fated for, but at the same time we can make our own decisions how to get there.

Yes, though it is a thing of perception. We are in charge of our free will, and God is in charge of our fate/destiny. As hard as it is to believe, our free will is not impeded by a fate or destiny since we don't know our fate/destiny.

Sure. I think fate is kind of what's SUPPOSED to happen, kind of the plan for you, but free will can change it. Something might be planned for you, but it doesn't HAVE to happen that way, just like in life.

Back again. The concept eludes me. How one can say one has a destiny {final goal}, but how we get there is by free choice options. If one would turn this around who to say that maybe our choices was our fate and the outcome was dependent upon those. I think I've decided {maybe}I just don't know. Thanks

Webster's --- fate; #1something that UNAVOIDABLY befalls a person. ----------- will;#1. the faculty of conscious and deliberate action. #2. power of choosing one's actions.

The short and only answer necessary is “Yes”. One can believe anything s/he chooses. Your life is as you see it. The world is as you are. Beyond that, I believe that the relationship of juncture and junction is akin to that of destination and destiny: One takes place in time, the other in space. We have a lifetime to do whatever we choose, but the end has been clearly laid out. Death is certain, and it appears that birth is too. I try to live my life so that the last day will be the best day.

One can believe what ever he wants. If one believes in free will AND fate, then it will continue to spawn confusion in the one that believes in both.

I think it's a combination, and certain key points are fated...like big historical things: being in certain time and place, like my ex was in Katrina, and had just moved to N'awlins *2 years to the day before* - was drawn there somehow, to experience this big life-changing event. My folks (Ukrainian) were drawn into getting being born so they could get out of the way of the moving Russian front so that they would both end up in the West. Oth, the fact that I had french toast for breakfast was not fated (unless the eggs turn out to be botulism tained or something)...it was free will. Maybe most of our lives are free will-ruled, and even at the big turning points one can exert some free will - do this or do that, but you are caught up in a tide of events/history that is beyond your control and that's fate. I think this may even turn out to be supported by science - some new findings about 'dark flow': http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080923-dark-flows.html and also the 'braneworld' theory of mini-blackholes (your socks really DO disappear!) The multiverse is pretty cool: causation and complexity are intertwined in both linear and non-linear ways, and dimensions beyond our experience. Both science and religion try to provide answers to the unkowable. Also, astrophysics is fascinating. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13070896/ -check out the animation for more understanding

It's very common to believe in both. You have choices in life, as we all know. It's a matter of something things being destined to happen no matter the choices.

Okay. This is the simple way I understand the debate. If I liken it to a train ride; destiny dictates my final station - but free will lets me pick the route I take to get there. If one beleves you cannnot have both; how can I say the route was not predetermined and I am deluding myself that any free will was involved in either the route or final station. I'm done, my head hurts.