How Could Any Movie Be Worse Than Cube?
Last night, I was watching a horrible movie called Cube 2: Hypercube. It had no redeeming qualities, except for the fact that it elucidated, for me, the answer to the paradox of Fate and Free Will.
I’m surely not the first to think of it (since obviously this stems from the movie), but if I’m the first to tell you, then there’s something special in that.
And I talk about the movie’s plot in the past tense. So what?
What’s really at odds in this paradox is the omnipotence of God versus the freedom of the individual to form his own future; i.e. “if God already knows what I choose to do, aren’t I then fated to do so?”
No.
A few months ago, I thought I figured this problem out. That night, the solution involved the presence of God in each “individual,” based on the singularity of what we call “Existence.” Since there is no separation between God and individual, then both fate and free will are merely illusions and do not oppose but rather complement each other in a yin-yang binary. Fabulous. But incomplete.
Cube 2: Hypercube – that terrible movie – made use of parallel universes to tell its story. That is, every single choice, among the infinite, that each character could have made was a realized possibility, at some point inside the Hypercube (a four-dimensional square, of course). Because this structure also involved time (as in space-time), these different temporal points could be moved and spliced with other moments – the parallel universes could intersect. Therefore, for the characters, every future was present. And because nothing can come of nothing, the elements for their ideal future, as well as their worst future, were present and prepared for combination.
It’s like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book.
But back to God. Simply because God knows what an individual will do before he does it does not thrust this choice on the individual. God sees the future an individual chooses – quiet – but this future swims in a sea of unchosen possibilities, ALL of which God sees.
Also: Predestination is different than Fate, because there’s some wiggle room in the former. It’s being forced to wear a ball-and-chain, rather than being tied down.
And: Individuals may be and probably are compelled, but not forced, to choose what they choose.
Problem solved. It’s not like it matters anyway.
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