Food for Thought: Eternalism

Okay, now I finally can write about this topic. I apologize for that freakishly long rant in the previous post.

So. If you didn't know, there are a few philosophies of the nature of time. What is time?... Is it set in concrete, or is it determined as life moves across its timeline?

I might not really show it very openly, but I'm intrigued by how "time" works. It's hard to explain my fascination for it... I just wonder if it's possible that life is already a pre-developed timeline. Basically, what I ask myself is.. does some sort of weird force push me in a particular direction to make certain decisions? (Am I even making my own decisions?)

A coolio visual rep of the theories.

I'll use an example. After reading the EXO Kaisoo fanfiction "Arbitrage," I read an analysis of the fanfic which mentioned this particular time philosophy (the fanfiction had hints of it, supposedly), called "eternalism." Eternalism is basically saying that "all points in time are equally 'real'." Which means, the past, present, and future are all as if they were simultaneously in a block cube, which is why it is called "the block universe." For example, the future is not something that is affected by things like choices and decisions from the present (that philosophy is called "presentism"), but rather, it was already set in stone from the very beginning.

(If you've read the Harry Potter books, the event with the Time-Turner in The Prisoner of Azkaban is an example of presentism, the fact that one's decisions/actions can change the outcome of things. But I won't be elaborating on that very much in this post.)

Lovely fanart of Kyungsoo and Kai
by midnighttofu | tumblr

In "Arbitrage," which mainly focuses on time travel, (spoiler alert oops too late!!) Kyungsoo repeatedly tries to prevent Kai's death by going back in time to "change" the course of fate, but fails every time. He is in complete denial of Kai's death and blindly tries to go back each time, causing his life to be in a constant loop. According to the eternalism philosophy, Kyungsoo cannot change Kai's fate because Kai's death was already predetermined. He is to die, and no matter how many times Kyungsoo tries to change that, he will never succeed because, as I mentioned earlier, the future is part of the immutable block of life. Going back in time would mean literally replaying the course of events, because something will always somehow push Kyungsoo back on the same path that leads to the same end (Kai's death).

Eternalism might be something I agree with. While I do somewhat believe that our "now" decisions govern our future, if you look at it in a broader sense.... eh, I don't know. This stuff is pretty trippy.

Consider this brain food. ^^ What do you think time is? Is it like those old Goosebumps books, where decisions choose your ultimate fate? Or is it like a pre-written novel?