This Is Not a Very Good Post So Read at Your Own Peril

Last evening I saw 'The Adjustment Bureau." It was entertaining although quite silly. Despite its silliness, it did raise some interesting questions concerning the meaning of life.

For one, the premise of the movie is that god (referred to as "the chairman") has a plan for the world and is guiding events with the help of the adjustment bureau, who are basically angels who walk around making sure certain things do or do not happen so that things go according to plan.

Now, this is a common idea in theology: god has a plan. The problem, however, is that if god has a plan, how can human beings ever change the course of history? There have been many attempts to solve this problem, but it seems rather difficult for a human being to really be in control of the course of his life if god not only has a plan for world history, but for each particular being within that history. What if you decide you don't like god's plan and want to change things? Is it possible for a human being to interfere with the grand design? How can there be a plan and free will?

This reminds me of a friend of mine named Charlie. Charlie is a dog and I sometimes walk him. The other night I was walking him and he kept wanting to stop and sniff things and do this and that. I, however, was in a rush, so I was pulling him along. He could movie slightly within the constraints of the leash, but he could never really control the direction or stop if I didn't want to let him. Human beings may be no different. We may feel we are in control but are actually being pulled along on a leash and our ultimate direction is not in our control, even though we can move a little bit along the confines of our leash.

Anyway, back to the plan. In the movie the plan is never revealed. That's not so different from what followers of monotheistic religions believe, though. They don't really claim to state what the ultimate plan is, but usually say things like it's beyond our comprehension or the lord works in mysterious ways, etc. Perhaps they would say the ultimate plan is for us to live on the planet for a while and then some go to heaven and some go to hell. But if that is the plan, forgive me for being so impertinent, but it seems like a sucky plan.

Anyway, this has actually been a very sub-par post. Maybe that's because the adjustment bureau, although entertaining, was rather sub-par. Crap begets crap.

That's all. Thanks to everyone, including you, for reading.