Hehe – haven’t had a super dramatic title in a while, so I thought I’d just throw a good old tabloid heading up there for you. In this episode Jerame and I talk about a few movies that are in theaters now and go a little in-depth on the “Golden Compass” argument. Unfortunately, Jon wasn’t with us this week but he’ll be back when we come back after the holidays.
Enjoy, and let us know what you think.
1. Do read whole trilogy before deciding what it’s about–keeps changing.
2. Pullman is an atheist, so take his context into consideration.
3. Free will and “destiny” are not actually mutually exclusive, IMHO. Depends on your specific definition of destiny, of course.
Comment by Suzi — December 18, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
Suzi – you’re right about reading the entire trilogy before making final decisions, but we wanted to talk about it and since neither of us had finished the trilogy but both of us had finished “The Golden Compass,” we decided to speak from where we were.
I’d like to know more about how you define destiny – or any resources you might be able to point me toward for clarity.
The more basic definition, which is similar to the one I use (and can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destiny) follows:
“Destiny refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed natural order to the universe.”
And free will, “The question of free will is whether, and in what sense, rational agents exercise control over their actions and decisions” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will )
“Fixed natural order” and a rational agent’s control over his/her own actions and decisions seem semantically as well as inferentially exclusive.
Although, I do recognize that there may be different, more inclusive, and personal definitions, I am unable to reconcile them with the “popular usage” of the terms Destiny and Free-Will.
I hope that you can shed some new light on this subject – Jerame and I tend to be of the same cloth on quite a few matters and I’m always happy to hear a different perspective.
Thanks again for your comments and thanks for listening.
Comment by Justin — December 18, 2007 @ 9:09 pm