Is Everything Determined and Parables of the Kingdom  --Samantha Wiktor

While reading “Is Everything Determined,”  by Stephen Hawking, I was trying immaculately hard to wrap my head around the author’s concept, but in the end, found it confusing and frustrating.  He addresses some fairly large issues and makes great comparisons such as, the effective theory of fluid mechanics not being exact but then contrasting his example by reminding us that we use this theory successfully in the design of ships or oil pipelines.  I think that through this reading I learned that, yes, we do know enough to predict certain situations.  I know that if I place my hand on a hot over, it will get burned.  This is common knowledge discovered through experience.  I’m not sure that we, as a human race, could ever come to the point of knowing or through a set of laws being able to predict what will happen in every circumstance possible, but it is a very interesting thought.  Hawking even says himself that “the idea that there is some grand unified theory that determines everything in the universe raises many difficulties.”  I think throughout this essay, Hawking is searching for something comparable to the golden rule.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.  I think that Hawking wants to take something this simple and universally known and create a rule or set of rules that function in the same way.  He is looking for a golden rule for determining everything.  This, then, raises a problem of authority.  Who is to say that Hawking’s set of theories or rules are greater and should be accepted over my set of theories or rules.  Hawking then touches on free will and says that, “..if we are all determined by a grand unified theory, none of us can help what we do, so why should anyone be held responsible for what they do?”  This applies to the insanity theory that loosely says, if you are crazy and commit a crime, you receive a free pass.  We, as a human race can not function with a grand set of theories or rules.  We need the free will and capacity to let some events and situations determine themselves.