When people think about fate, they are usually thinking about the biggest events in their lives, such as finding the person with whom they will fall in love, or perhaps the time and circumstance of their death.

We are especially tempted to think about fate when we contemplate that those things aren't completely under our control, though we would like them to be.

So it's natural to wonder, are they under the control of someone (or something) else? A benevolent (but inscrutable) God, perhaps, or the laws of physics? If we can't control the major events of our lives in the ordinary way—by making careful plans and carrying them out—then maybe we can control them in an extraordinary way, by propitiating the gods, or by using some hocus-pocus to see what fate has in store for us, so we can at least be better prepared.

It seems to me, if you accept determinism—that things happen either by the will of God or by the laws of nature—then you have to accept that not only the big events of our lives are predetermined, but also the most trivial, because big events depend on many little ones. ("For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...etc.") In other words, we have no free will.

Personally, I find determinism impossible to "believe in"—but let me define "believe in." I can't believe in determinism in the same way that I believe in justice or forgiveness, that is, to use it (or try to use it) as a guiding principle of life. I can believe in it in an abstract sense, the same way I believe that the galaxy is 100,000 light years side from side—but I would live my life the same way whether I believed it or not.

Note: I am not saying "I can't believe it, therefore it isn't true." That would be a non sequitur. I really mean "I can't believe it, therefore I can't help but pretend it isn't true."

In other words, I am forced (predetermined, if you will) to act as if I believe I have free will, even though (maybe) I don't.

Does that make sense?