A man's destiny is forged by events, surely, for we cannot help bearing the crowns and the scars that random fate has bequeathed to us in our lives. But more than events, it is a man's own free will that shapes him that reflection and echo within him of the very God who created him. Free will, like God, can rise above any circumstances or obstacles one may face; like God, it can make the humble great, make a weak boy into a strong man, make a timorous student into the Emperor of the world. And like God's own rival, Lucifer, it can cause him to flail his fists fruitlessly against the breast of his very Creator, if by his free will he so chooses.

Michael Curtis Ford, Gods and Legions New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003