This is not really about science fiction. You can thank the wonderful book, Pride and Prejudice, for this post. My question is about soul mates and free will. First of all, do you believe that soul mates exist? I would like to, but then again, I believe in free will, and having a predetermined set husband or wife contradicts that belief. Some of my friends (I'm think of two in particular) who are undoubtedly in love and they could not imagine being with anyone else. My immediate reaction is to say that they have found their soul mates. However, what does that do to the theory of free will? Can we still have free will and a predetermined soul mate? Falling in love, from what I have heard and especially from the ultimate love story, Pride and Prejudice, seems more of a predetermined happening than of a choice. Darcy especially did not want to fall in love with Elizabeth and for the first half of the book, she no more liked him than Mr. Collins, but yet Darcy and Elizabeth did fall in love. So should I give up this whimsical notion of soul mates (because I won't give up free will) or is there an explanation of free will that can explain soul mates?

And sorry for being so "mushy" on this one, but the question is puzzling me exceedingly...