My paradox

[Bob The Mercenary]

While I was brainstorming ideas for my book today I came across a problem. I've come to call it a paradox and you'll see why in a minute.

Before anything else, though, even though this idea spawned from my Christian background, please try to keep this as far from a religious discussion as possible.

The idea of death comes up a lot in my story, and I've worked to expand on it enough so that each and every death, no matter how insignificant, means something to one or more of the characters.

That being said, I believe that everyone on this planet has a reason for being here. I believe everyone's been put here to complete a series of tasks, which upon completion, results in an exit from this world in the form of dying. Now, the tasks I'm talking about aren't simple and general like "marry this woman" or "have this kid" or "obtain this career". They are every single thing we do, every person we have an effect on, every idea we create, and everything in between. This "to-do list" contains thousands of these tiny events that we think of as trivial which ultimately end up drawing a much larger picture and changing the world as we know it, however contrived that sounds.

In addition, I've come up with three rules to this "list" that cannot be broken:

1. Nothing can be added or subtracted to the list.
2. No one can avoid completing a task in the list.
3. The list cannot be shortened or left uncompleted by an "untimely death" such as suicide.

You see that you couldn't physically break any of these rules unless you were, let's just say it, a god.

Now, here's the paradox. Let's say that your death is set from birth. The time, the place, the cause are all hardwired into time. Let's assume that person A died at age 15 by way of suicide through shooting himself. Now, by his death we can assume he completed all tasks that he was sent here to complete.

What if he hadn't gone through with the act? What if he never loaded the gun, cocked it and fired? Would his to-do list be extended? Which isn't allowed according to my rules. Or would he have just died some other way at the exact same moment?

In the book I'm considering using this example to explain "freak accidents".