Who's Script is it?

I honestly was a little skeptical when it came to watching The Adjustment Bureau because I had seen so many Matt Damon movies that involved everyone out to get him. I didn’t want to watch the same type of story especially when I had other things I needed to get done. Even though my attitude was unbecoming in the beginning, I found that I enjoyed the movie a lot. Since this movie was so enthralling and mind provoking, I’ve already encouraged a few people to watch it! The Adjustment Bureau brings this question to the floor that all humanity seems to have wrestled with over the centuries; Who is writing the script of my life? Is it a divine power that dictates every person’s choice in life, or is it up to man to choose his own destiny apart from God?

I find that The Adjustment Bureau does a good job at showing the difference, and at the same time, an over-lapping connection between freewill and determinism. In the movie, Harry Mitchell, one of the people working in the Adjustment Bureau, says this to David Norris, the protagonist of the story, “Most people live life on the path we set for them, too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize freewill is a gift that you'll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that's the chairman's real plan. That maybe one day, we won't write the plan, you will.” I believe that Harry is right when he says that freewill is a gift, but at the same time, I believe that the plan for a person’s life that the chairman, or God, writes down is the most satisfying and perfect plan for a person’s life. How can a perfect God write an imperfect plan for a person’s life?  Wouldn’t you want to follow God’s plan if you knew that it would be the one that gave you the ultimate life experience while on earth? The true beauty of God’s plan is that he also gives a person the right to choose it or not, and that is the choice of freewill. If a human chooses to make choices that deviates from that plan, it does alter “His”, or God’s, plan if you will. Even if it “alters” God’s plan, God can use that choice made by man for some other plan that God creates as well.

Although to some people, it may seem like God is a cruel dictator who only wants man to do what He writes down in the "plan book", but the way I see it is that God created man to choose his own destiny and at the same time God also created man to have the choice to follow what God wants for him. I see this as a balanced effect of freewill and determinism because like I said in my last blog post, “I believe that life works out to where there is a combination of both determinism and free will. I think we need both of these categories to be considered fully human. Without one category, there is an imbalance that reflects a lack of either free will or a divine power to interact in our lives.”

Reference: The Adjustment Bureau. Dir. George Nolfi. Perf. Matt Damon Emily Blunt. Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2011. DVD.