On Prediction & Free Will

The text below is my (slightly ammended) response to a topic at Tarot, Tea & Me regarding the apparent paradox between free will and the possibility of prediction. I think it sums up well how I feel about the subject for now, so I decided to preserve it here. 

I once talked here about a similar topic, but focused on the aspect of Fate. My position still stands that I believe certain events in our life are fated, and happen regardless of our choices. We can run, we can hide, but we will eventually have to face them. I do not think this logic applies to everything that happens to us, though.

As usual, there is no hard science or philosophy to back me on this. It is but my very personal point of view. 

~*~

I don't think the possibility of prediction negates free will. There's causality, which says that things happen in consequence of other things, but these consequences are not as obvious or as immediate as we think they are. I think this is where prediction "acts" - it points to where our current "thread of causality" is leading. Sometimes is can be changed... sometimes, it cannot. There are things you can't just 'free will' your way out. The fact you were born in a certain time, place and family gets to determine a lot of things in your life. You can change where you are going in some aspects - move to another place, leave your family if they suck -, but the past cannot be changed, thus it is not subject to free will. 

I like Viktor Frankl's definition of free will: To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. So free will does not get to determine our circumstances - the causality behind they are way too complex and bigger than us - but, to some degree, we can determine how we react to them. 

Of course, if you suffer from, let's say, a health condition that impedes you from being able to choose your own attitude, then your power to free will is diminished. Some authors in psychology even define "mental illness" as a certain lack of freedom in which to navigate the world. Even physicists argue whether free will can exist in a universe pre-determined by the nature of the laws of physics. 

Last, but not least, there's a quote from the film The last Samurai, which I like a lot: 

Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny? 

Algren: I believe a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.

I, too, think we do what we can, with what we have, as life reveals itself to us. Like Frankl, I believe a lot of our free will lies in the way we react or act about events that happen to us. 

This is where divination can be helpful, as it gives us an idea of what is ahead right now, so that we may better consider our own current steps. Or, in the case of fated situations, it lets us know what is to come so at least we may somehow prepare our spirits for it.