[MarkL]

Oh man, this just tears my heart out. If human beings are the best the "intelligent designer" can do, it doesn't say much for the "designer's" own intelligence. Sigh.

Hardly... It's the whole "free will" thing. I suppose it would have been easier and better for the "intelligent designer" to just create automatons, huh?

Mark

[Wolfstar]

It's the whole "free will" thing.

Exactly. It's the whole free will thing. Are we predestined? The answer, of course, is yes, to a very considerable degree. We are predestined by:

--> Our genes.
--> Our gender.
--> Whether or not we are born healthy or with a birth defect.
--> The parents to whom we are born.
--> The family into which we are born.
--> The society into which we are born.
--> Who raises us and how, and with what cultural, religious and societal values.

Only after all of the above have shaped the person we become can it be said that we have some degree of free will.