Fate, destiny, kismet, karma, wyrd..

Do we control our lives, or is there a path laid out for us?

'Kismet' seems to mean both the will of Allah, and a fate not influenced by any God.

'Karma': "In theistic schools of Hinduism, humans have free will to choose good or evil and suffer the consequences, which require the will of God to implement karma's consequences, unlike Buddhism or Jainism which do not accord any role to a supreme God or gods. In Eastern beliefs, the karmic effects of all deeds are viewed as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences." (Wikepedia)

So karma means free will, but what you do shapes what happens next, with or without a god involved.

'Destiny': "Destiny may be seen either as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable and unchangeable, or that individuals choose their own destiny by choosing different paths throughout their life." (Wikepedia)

So destiny is used both as an expression of free will, and as the idea that the path is laid out before you from the start.

'Fate' seems to refer to "an inevitable course of events" (Wikepedia)
"a. The supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.
b. The inevitable events predestined by this force."((http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fate)

'Wyrd': "is a concept in Anglo-Saxon culture roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny".

An finally an extract from an article on 'wyrd':
For example, say I happen to find myself in a situation where someone insults me. I can "freely" choose any one of a number of immediate reactions, from ignoring the person to slapping her. But my choice at that moment is obviously going to be constrained by a number of patterns of wyrd already in place, including my inborn personality characteristics, my social conditioning, my past experiences with being insulted, my relationship with the person who has insulted me, even my hormone levels.

To the extent that my reaction is determined by these patterns, wyrd is shaping my life at that moment, and my reaction may feel to me as though it were predestined (if I want to deny responsibility) or the only "right" choice (if I want to claim responsibility for it). To the extent that I am aware of certain recurring patterns in my life, I might feel as though the person was fated to insult me at that moment. But no matter which way I chose to react to the insult, my reaction will add to the patterns in place and constrain my future actions (if I'm insulted a second time, my reaction will be determined in part by how I behaved when I was insulted the first time.) So, at the same time I am caught up in experiencing certain patterns of wyrd, I am creating them.

Moving from the personal to the universal, my reaction will also add to the patterns affecting the behaviour of the person who insulted me. As a result of my response, she may change her behaviour towards others which will, in turn, change her personal řrlög, and so on. Ultimately, each little choice we make affects universal forces which can come back to affect us in weird ways. The larger patterns of wyrd created by individuals in a particular time and place is the source of the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) which informs the beliefs and behaviour of everyone in a society. Thus, "that which has become", wyrd, both creates and is created by individual actions, states, and choices. "
(http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/heathenry/whatwyrd.html)

So, what do you think? Do we have choices, or don't we? Is everything written? Do the god(s) decide? Is there a natural law or a cosmic law of consequence?