Freedom of Choice (oedipus the King) :: essays research papers fc

People have visited physics and fortunetellers for centuries to find appear what is going to happen in their future, or to help them make an key decision that they faced. This is what nance Laius did in the play Oedipus the major power by Sophocles. King Laius, Oedipuss father went to the Oracle at Delphi. Upon receiving the prophecy that his son Oedipus pass on kill him and marry his mother and commit incest with her, King Laius of his own unacquainted(p) lead ordered that Oedipus feet be bound by riveting his ankles unitedly and sent him to Mount Cithaeron to perish. Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that his son would put to death him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta bore a son, he exposed the baby on Mt. Cithaeron, branch pinning his ankles together (hence the name Oedipus, meaning Swell-Foot)(1).King Laius exercised his isolated will when he chose to believe that the prophecy would come true. Had he chosen to overleap the prophecy, then(prenominal) Oedipus would have known who his parents were and would non have murdered King Laius or married Jocasta. If mans future is predestined then it would not matter, but if mans fate lay in his own hands and is determined by the decisions he makes, he would be able to use the prophecies to make dampen decisions. Individuals can respond to a proposition or any encountered accompaniment by instantly thinking of its opposite. Every thesis can advance an antithesis distinguishable logical meanings and patterns can then be discerned. This rational office of the mind to take alternative perspectives means that an individual can then choose or create a new synthesis from different perspectives(2). Its not that he chose to take action to action to foresee such a dastardly act, but the way he chose to script with the situation that set the stage for it to happen. It could be said that Sophocles was trying to argue that if you choose to believe in predestination, you subconsciously deny yourself the ability of free will. Fin every(prenominal)y, perhaps faith can be seen as a crap of fixing our attention upon God and thereby freely committing ourselves. The theologian Nicholas scald says that the first words of the Creed, "I believe in God," do not express ones considered opinion about Gods existence but affirm that all of my life is "set henceforward steadfastly on God, and God alone.