Time, Destiny, and Free Will: Are We Truly Free?

Shariq Ali
Valueversity

Late at night, a reader sits alone in his room, reading a book.
Every page of that book has already been written. The beginning exists, and so does the ending. Yet whenever he turns a page, it feels as though the story is being born in that very moment—unfolding before him in real time.

This raises an important question: could our lives be something like that as well?

When Albert Einstein explained time not merely as the movement of clock hands but as a dimension, a fascinating question emerged.
If the past, present, and future all exist in some form simultaneously, does that mean our future has already been written?
Here, two major theories come into view.

The first is Determinism, which argues that every event in the universe is linked to a cause. If human beings were able to fully understand all the laws of nature, perhaps they could calculate the future as well.

According to this view, even the foundation of your next decision may already exist.

The second is Free Will. This perspective argues that human beings are not merely machines. We make choices, commit mistakes, learn from them, and write our own stories.

Modern science and philosophy now offer a third perspective as well. Perhaps life is like a map with many possible paths already laid out—but which path we choose remains in human hands.
Perhaps we are neither completely free nor completely bound by fate.

The laws of the universe may be fixed… but the moves are ours to make.

And perhaps the beauty of life lies within this very unfinished mystery.