"Determinism opines that everything that has happened and will happen in this world was determined by the initial cosmic coordinates present at the advent of our universe about 14 billion years ago. All subsequent outcomes were predetermined at this inception, so there is no true free choice in this world. Agency stands in opposition to determinism. Agency refers to our ability tochoose. Choosing is not only selecting from multiple possibilities, but it is also rejecting other possibilities, yet an outcome remains undetermined."
"Under the coordinates, rules, and laws of determinism, our perception of our agency in the world is defined as an illusion. Conceding that it is the environment, the universe, meeting our cells and our genome that determines most of our physical, emotional, social, behavioral, mental, and spiritual states of being, it still feels incorrect to conclude that determinism is the rule of our experience and existence. It feels like we do have some agency."
"In fact, when we dig into the depths of cosmic functions at the level of quantum fields and mechanics, it appears that the universe doesn't run via predictabilities and predeterminations but by possibilities and probabilities-nothing in the universe is strictly dictated, and outcomes emerge within the moment, not in advance of the now. Therefore, it seems unlikely that from an expansive and indeterminate universe an infantile and temporary species living on a little green and blue spinning spec"
Determinism asserts that all events were fixed by the universe's initial conditions roughly 14 billion years ago, leaving no true free choice. Agency asserts the capacity to choose, involving selecting among and rejecting possibilities so that outcomes remain undetermined. Deterministic frameworks label perceived agency as an illusion, while acknowledging environmental and genomic influences on physical, emotional, social, behavioral, mental, and spiritual states. Quantum fields and mechanics reveal foundational probabilities and possibilities rather than strict predetermination. Those probabilities allow outcomes to emerge in the present moment and lend plausibility to real human agency over absolute determinism.
Read at Psychology Today
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