pan6467: If that's what you meant, it's a bit more acceptable, though still incorrect. Defining Pagan as anything non-Abrahamic is an
extremely broad definition, and you'd have to realize that most people do not understand the term in that manner (including those who are in the business of religious studies). It is much more commonly understood to mean religions without strict organization and/or religions relating specifically to nature. Besides, I think it's fair that I assumed that is the definition you intended since 1) you're pretty open about your own neo-Pagan beliefs and 2) very few organized non-Abrahamic religions have any concept of an "Earth Mother," which you referenced in your opening post. Also, even if you meant for "Pagan" to mean any non-Abrahamic religion, it ignores the fact that most Abrahamic religions also recognize interconnectedness to one degree or another. Anyway, it's not particularly important, I simply mean to say that you should be more careful about throwing around anything as "proof" for any particular spiritual view in opposition to any other, especially if what you intend to discuss has nothing to do with that.
Now, onto the more interesting discussion...
albania: At the base level, I must agree that there is no such thing as free will. This, however, is a conclusion I came to long ago and I believe it is the only logical answer to the question technically speaking. As complex as humans are - as complex as the neurons that make up our brain are, or the unseen ties that bind us through our interactions are - everything ultimately breaks down to the atom. One can talk about inanimate consciousness or one can ignore that concept completely but, in the end, I don't think it matters and the atoms (and, breaking it down even further, the subatomic particles) work according to the laws of physics - some of which we understand and some of which we do not. In this sense, all of existence is determined. I am choosing to respond to this thread, but ultimately it is not a choice. On the larger scale, it is not a choice because of the life experiences I have had which have shaped my personality in such a way that I will choose to respond right now, but even more significantly all of those life experiences can be broken down to the interactions of particles that must and do interact in the exact way that they have. Quantum physics may allow for a certain degree of randomness, but even that randomness is not indicative of any free will because I am not my atoms. My atoms are me, and they will do whatever they will do.
But - and this is where we get to the important things -
so what?
While I can't think of any serious reason to believe in free will, I continue to live my life as if my choices are my own, while simultaneously recognizing that my choices are impacted by those of others, and so on. Still, even any attempt we make to assert our free will by doing something which we think goes against what we are inclined to do...is not free will. On the atomic level, we were destined to attempt to assert our free will in that way, at that time.
So, what implication does it have? None, really, and I think it's a mistake to look for one. I challenge anyone to think of a new way to live if there is no free will. Try to be more free? That's simply a predetermined response to the predetermined discovery in your brain that there is no free will, and even your change in lifestyle upon realizing this is, in itself, not a free choice. So, if there is no free will, the only reasonable option is to acknowledge the fact... and move on. Think as if you are free, act as if you are free, all with the internal understanding that you are, in fact, not free. For to think and act as if you are not free is to unnecessarily create unhappiness for yourself regarding something which, lacking free will, you cannot control in the first place. And even this "choice" to think and act as if you are free is not a choice at all. I am compelled to write this by the workings of the atoms that currently make up my brain, which are causing me to impact the physical world around me, which will transmit this data (made of yet more atoms and particles) to you, and ultimately I hope that the workings of my atoms will have a cascade effect so as to impact the workings of your atoms and create the "choice" to think and act as if you are free. You can see, we are not free, but it is useless to spend much energy on the fact beyond acknowledging it.
Now, as for interconnectedness in the broader sense, that is a different story. If our atoms will allow us to think and act as if we are free and put our lack of free will on the back burner, so to speak, then we are faced with the choice of how to let this understanding that everything is inter-related shape our decisions. This is where focusing on the "good" side of inter-relation comes in, where we recognize the importance of our own actions and "choose" to live according to that. It is by becoming "in tune" with this interconnectedness that we can lead happier, more fulfilling, lives, while also improving the lives of those around us. This is generally what is meant by interdependent co-arising. Because of the cosmic inter-relation, we rise and fall together, like points on an infinitely complex net. If you rise, the people and objects around you rise in accordance and as the distance gets greater, the effect lessens. If you descend, the same thing happens in the opposite direction. It is by choosing to rise, in recognition of our interconnectedness, that we create a happier existence for ourselves and those around us. As you rise and bring those people and things around you up along with you, they are often compelled to make the same choice, only enhancing the rising effect. But, the nature of existence is that there will be others that choose to descend and this counters your rising effect. The idea is that the more people recognize this inter-relation, the more will choose to rise, and the more progress will be made in that direction. So, recognizing an interconnected world has significant implications regarding our own lives. Our own well-being is linked, in the broadest sense, to the well-being of others. While we can find ways to consider ourselves happy separate from the well-being of others, it is through the recognition of our own interconnectedness that we are able to reach higher points, both collectively and individually.