Being non-religious I don't believe that a god is determining, or know what will happen. Just gonna throw that out there before I start.
I don't post in discussion much, and probably won't continue to much past this thread, but this topic caught my eye as it's something I've been tussling with of late due to a few things happening around/to me.
I'm somewhat comforted by the notion that everything that happens is set. Not necessarily for a reason, but is going to happen, like the universe is nothing more than a series of coincidences strung together.
Regardless of whether that be right or wrong (I can definitely see the drawbacks in my argument) it brings me a degree of comfort.
The thought that "what will be, will be" almost like responsibility is taken from me by... well everything. A degree of absolution through insignificance.
Obviously who I am affects the decisions I make (and the decisions of others affect me too), but everything leading up to that point, and the matter that makes up my very being will determine the outcome, just as that outcome will determine the next. If that makes sense?

Upon reflection, the conclusion I came to was one of ignorance.
The comfort of thinking this way outweighs any other argument I can put forward to myself.


As for the rest of the opinions on this thread;

Ezio: do you mean you feel that the actions of one don't matter, because the overall outcome is already decided?

Was about to respond to Kradel when I realised Beast said pretty much what I wanted to say.
God being subject to fate is a weird side track that's kinda cool though.
If god made man in his image, and man is subject to fate, it could be logical to then say god is affected by it too. In which case, our fate is linked to something greater than a god by the question "what would decide god's fate?"
I'm interested to see what the religious people make of that point :]