It's interesting what studying a play
about a damned god will do for your own theology. I'm stuck taking
one last class, one little buggar of a class that is keeping that
slip of paper that says I made it through university away from me.
The class is called “World Classics in Translation.” Two guesses
what it's about. I really, really, don't like ancient literature. Hi,
my name is Elle, and I hate Greek dramatics and Shakespeare. But
that's a whole 'nother ballgame.
Prometheus has a story most know, and
if they don't, stop reading and go look it up in your Greek mythology
section at the library. He helps mortals, gets damned by Zeus, winds
up chained to a rock with his liver being eaten daily by an eagle.
Yada yada yada. Not my division. My part comes in here: fate and
fortune play a huge role in this story and there's an underlying
question of predestination versus blind wanderings. I've thought for
years it was both and as I was thinking it out and rationalizing it
in my brain, it's both.
Think on it this way. You've come to
the cliché hall with two doors. Between these two doors sits...
we'll go with a little old man, just for images sake. Little old guy
sits there and watches you debate which door to chose. He starts
chatting you up, but not asking questions like “Where are you
from?” but more along the lines of “How was last night's dinner
of tacos, made by your mom, which you ate at 6:25 pm?” You pay
attention at that statement, and as you speak with him, or more, as
you listen to him, you realize he knows everything about you.
EVERYTHING. All the details you'd forgotten, all the ones you'd hoped
would stay hidden, all the ones your family and friends remembered.
Everything. He knows your hopes, dreams, fears, quirks, which
shoulder blade is itching but your too mesmerized to scratch. So you
ask him which door to go through. He tells you something of what each
door holds, good and bad, and the final destination. It's a little
far fetched for you to believe, and you start thinking one door looks
better than another, for whatever reason you decide. His facial
expression never changes, but in one of those weird “you know he
knows that you know that he knows...” circles, it's clear that he
knows what door you'll be picking. And he's done nothing to influence
that. Everything he told you about the doors was unbiased. So you
pick a door, and he's on the other side, waiting.
That's predestination and blind
wanderings. We have no idea, and we still have the free will to
choose. He just knows ahead of time the choice we're going to make.
And that's my little nugget of musings
while I sit, listening to Sherlock Holmes music and attempting to pay
attention to a Greek play I really don't care for at all. God works
in random ways, doesn't he?
Now then, was this post
predestination, or of my own free will?
