living and having studied in fast paced London i have become more 
confused than ever with how much real independant choice i have when it 
comes to personal rationalising and moral guidence concerning how to 
conduct my life on this planet. Who do you think makes the key 
decisions on how you live your life on this planet and further more if 
its a force other than self where do you think the guideness and or 
manipulation is coming from? I believe that it goes way above the 
authority of national or international government or scripted religious 
practice, but who or what "IT" is i just can't work out...Any 
thoughts...

3 responses total.

I believe that YOU make the key decisions on how you live your life on 
this planet, or, in this universe for that matter. Once born we are 
thrown headlong into the mass confusion and turmoil of the ever 
evolving universe in which the only constant is change. Everybody's 
circumstance is different from everyone else's depending on the time 
period, and place, into which you were thrown, but how you react to 
that circumstance is up to you. The only thing that is certain is that 
you have a finite amount of time. What you do with it is up to you. 
It's all in your attitude. To believe that there is a superior force 
pulling all the strings is to give up all control of your life and live 
with excuses. Every single day is a new adventure in which the most 
unexpected things can happen. Enjoying them is what it's all about. I'm 
content to know that I have a short period during which I can marvel at 
riding the wave and contemplate the things that mankind will accomplish 
before the ride is over. Perhaps we are the vehicle by which the 
universe is getting to know itself. Becoming self aware, so to speak. 
Maybe the earth is like a neuron, and we are the electrical impulses 
which are extending our dendrites into space in search of other neurons 
(planets with intelligent life) with which we will form a network of 
intelligece which will pull the whole universe into beilng with self 
awareness that will ask the same questions we are about it's own 
existence. In which WE are pulling the strings.

I humbly disagree with the premise that to believe there is a force "pulling
all your strings" is to give up control over your life.  Much to the contrary,
I see it as a freeing realization.

Consider, for a moment, a film.  The lives of the characters onscreen have
been predetermined by a director, but the characters (not the actors, mind
you, the characters) have no awareness of the director.  The characters,
nonetheless, live their lives full of complex decisions, and go through
thought processes in deciding what they will do.

Likewise, if history has been predetermined (by a supernatural entity, or
merely by the movement of atoms) this does not affect our ability to live our
lives however we choose.  Our sincerest act of choosing has just been
preordained.

We're players in a complex game.  Some "key decisions" about our lives 
are rules of the game that we can't get around.  (Wishing *hard* to be
a bird won't make me one, and jumping off a tall building flapping my
arms will just make me a splat-spot on the sidewalk.)  Others are under
the power of other game players, some are under our own control.  Many
other players are eager to influence our choices when something is ours
to decide (12 easy payment of $39.95!  No, no Susan - don't play that
Draw 4 & Lose Turn card against me!  Please marry me Nathan, our son
need to have a father!).  If we're more than simpletons at playing the
game of life, we're often trying to influence the decisions that other
players get to make (about their own lives, about us, and about other
players).  

People who think that they don't make any of the key decisions in their
own lives are much sought-after by unsavory players trying to get ahead
in the game by controlling others...

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