Are lives pre-destined?

Destiny - the pre-determination of life events:

Statement: 

Life is tuned to two factors relating to the human being. Need and fruit of karma. Then there is nature of the human, a key factor for planning his destiny. Each life is thus so finely intertwined with others who are the supporting actors performing pre-planned roles to create the annals of time for the individual determined well beforehand. That is one aspect of the wonder of our merciful Creator.

Explanation:

First part means you always get what you need, and you always pay for your deeds which results in good or bad happening to you. Both supply and demand aspects are provided for every need and every karma in life.

Being a rationalist, I am referring to the cause of all creation as Creator or Universality as I have done in my previous blog post. I do not want to call him God, which can result in many objections. I am using the name 'Creator' precisely because I do not understand this great Cause fully. This is not an attempt to control anyone. I believe free will and choice should always be upheld. There could be many dimensions which we are not capable of understanding due to our limited physical bodies. This is quite obvious from the fact that we do not know what happens after death. Yet we are sure that the Soul (probably a Cosmic body) goes out of the body and vanishes into a dimension which we are not capable of seeing.

Nature of the individual is the core directional  determinant or else how can the story be written beforehand? Nature consists of our physical, emotional and mental attributes which are associated with our own body. Perhaps how well each individual performs measured in karma determines the finer details and the level of success in the general direction already determined by our nature.

Personally, I am ambivalent on religion since I cannot be sure if it does greater harm or good. It surely does both. It is true that most people need the support of religion to feel peaceful.  Yet if one understands certain basic life's truths like integrity, the larger good and sustenance of nature, then the need for religion as a support in life diminishes. The reason is that there is a powerful force within us which compensates by providing guidance if we search deeply. 

As far as the Creator being merciful is concerned, am referring to the ability of man to reform himself, a power which has been vested in him if he desires to do so.

Coming to the intertwining part. The people in our lives are not there by chance. Each one of them plays a part to a greater or lesser degree. It is important to nurture relationships that are not harmful. The reason for the relationship could reveal itself years or decades later. They are there to provide help or to stop us from doing something or just be a friend and much more. They hold the power to create our destinies by being the Creator’s instruments in our lives. 

Other intelligent forms may exist in greater numbers, and we do not have much idea of the extent of their intelligence. For that we need to have metrics to measure intelligence across all life forms and to study their consciousness and intelligence. Nevertheless, the instruments of the Creator go across life forms. 

I will conclude by stating that our lives seem to be largely controlled and guided by our destinies and sometimes we get a choice for exercising our free-will without losing losing something as the cost of free-will. More on free-will in another post.