· Do you believe that things are fated no matter what, or do you believe your actions can change the course?

Question

of your life?

WOW- what an amazing response- thanks for all your great answers !!

Answer 1

If everything is pre-determined - how can anyone be held responsible for anything they do? No - I definately believe in free will. Great question. :)

Answer 2

This is a question that simply cannot be answered.

For example, this evening after work, I have the choice whether or not I go to the Library to return some books. If I go, then they will be returned on time. If I leave it until Monday and go to the pub instead, the books will be late and I will incur a fine. The fine will be small and I quite like the idea of going to the pub. Is it my fate/destiny to incur the extra expense of a fine on Monday or just the result of me being an undisciplined drunk?

Was it my fate to be an undisciplined drunk? If so, can I claim a dispensation from my wife when I pour myself in through the front door on the grounds that my state of mind/body is nothing to do with my imbibing unhealthy quantities of beer but everything to do with cosmic forces beyond my control?

Actually, thinking about it, that might be a really good idea - I think I'll give it a try!

Answer 3

I believe that actions change our course of fate. I think my theory differs from others theories in that i believe that any little action could change everything. It works like a chain of events. After getting into a minor car accident, i like to think that if i had changed the things i did before the accident, the accident wouldn't have happened, or maybe not the same way. Maybe buying the car in the first place was the first link in the chain. Maybe if i bought the car in a different color my life would have a different outcome.

This makes me wonder; can other peoples actions change others people fates, although not from contact with another person, but by their own positive or negative energies and or feelings. Can our energies change the fate of other people of the world.

twilight zone anyone ?!?

Answer 4

Life is a journey we all take it is impossible to believe that life is pre-determined. If it was then we would have no need to experience new things with pleasure because it was something we were destined to have. Life is an unknown course with many twists and turns and are actions for the most part are completely spontaneous so it is impossible for fate to be planned, when we are a completely unpredictable at the best of times

Answer 5

Hi.
I believe that 'Fate' is the result ,eventually,of your actions. We are all equipped with a 'choice engine', and you can plot your route through life by turning your rudder one way or another. If all of your respondents had banged a couple of quid into an African famine relief charity today,then someone elses' 'Fate' would have been determined for the better. Our fate is interlinked with that of others globally,and that's what makes the world go round.
Sadly,the selfish,intovert society we live in reduces the full potential of this effect.

Answer 6

I think it is a bit of both really, I believe fate does control the external part of your life i.e. where you are ultimately supposed to end up but the things that happen on your journey to getting there, you make decisions about.
I only feel this as at the age of 18 I left home I chose to leave london for a while then go abroad for a while then come back to london and ended up living where I do now and working for a media company. I could have stayed in london and carried on working where I was, my situation would still have been the same as when I returned to london i.e. I would still have been living where I do now and I would have had to get a new job as my previous employer passed away not long after I left london, but I just look at it as I was meant to end up in a new job living where I do and being in London but I just took the more interesting route to ending up where fate decided I should be.

Answer 7

I think we wrote our own destiny before we were born. We are just acting it all out like a play at the theatre. However, I don't believe our whole life is written in stone, which means we can prolong or shorten our own suffering etc through the decisions we make. For example: If I was in a bad relationship, I could stay with that person for years & suffer as a result before finally ending it out of sheer despair, or I can realise it's not working & end the relationship after a few months. Either way the outcome is the same. I don't end up with that person. There is certainly more than one path we can follow depending on ourselves. We do have a certain amount of choice. Did you ever see that film "The sliding doors"? I thought it was excellent.

Answer 8

Think of it this way. If there will be a sea battle tomorrow, and someone says "there will be a sea battle tomorrow" then that sentence is true, even before the sea battle occurs. But given that the sentence is true, the sea battle could not fail to take place. This argument can be rejected by denying that predictions about the future have to be true or false when they are made - ie, rejecting bivalence for sentences about the future. In other words, if there is a fork in the road, it can be said you will go left or you will go right. So;

1) There exist now propositions about everything that might happen in the future.

2) Every proposition is either true or else false.

3) If you accept statements 1) and 2), then there exists now a set of true propositions that, taken together, correctly predict everything that will happen in the future.

4) If there exists now a set of true propositions that, taken together, correctly predict everything that will happen in the future, then whatever will happen in the future is already unavoidable.

Everything happens because it is supposed to. When walking down a path and you come upon a fork in the road, you can say you used free will and decided to turn right. But reality says you turned right because you were supposed to turn right.

Answer 9

Hiya

My view is that we are all part of the universe, whatever combinations of atoms we represent - in our case human. That being the case, and given that we were created at some starting point (irrespective of how minute that starting point was) then the universe and the way it is unfolding has a basis in fact.

Taking that fact and looking at it's development is truly awe inspiring (to us anyway) perhaps to the universe it is very simple!.

So if 'Fate' is our description of 'gonna happen anyway', that is how it all started, we were created from something and didn't seem to have a choice in the matter, but simply evolved to this point.

Therefore the logical conclusion is that we were fated 'to be' and the future is probably unfolding as intended. (By what and by whom is a separate question!) The choices we make are in a sense only available to us because we were fated to exist with that option. I assume therefore that whatever choices we make, it is from a range of 'free will' that has universal acceptance but to us anyway, unknown boundaries.

Anyway thats my twopenyworth!!

Answer 10

Consider this: every particle in the universe obeys the laws of physics. There are a countless number of particles in the universe, so predicting what they all are going to do is impossible to do, because of the sheer numbers and complications involved, but they WILL obey the laws of physics.

Can we predict the future? Well, in theory, yes. If we knew the position and velocity of every particle, we can do the maths and predict what they will all do. We're only limited by the sheer size of the task.

What is a thought?. It's just reactions between molecules in the brain, which are behaving just like every other particle. You can make choices out of free will, but whatever choice you do make is predetermined, just like everything else. You can't help it.

The good thing (as far as our sanity is concerned) is that we can't possibly predict the future - it's too complicated. When we look at it, it seems to us that we can shape the course of history by our actions, but in fact those very actions are predetermined.

Bottom line - yes, everything is fated, but they might as well not be because we can't tell the difference.

Answer 11

Nothing is pre-determined (fated) except death.

If there was such a thing as pre-destination then religion would be meaningless (because it wouldn't how may times you went to church/synagog/mosque) and no criminal should be punished (because they were not responsible for their crime) etc. etc.

What would be the point of living if it was pre-ordained?

Also, if there is no God and the Universe is just chance and thermal reactions then pre-determination would be (is) impossible.

Therefore, because there is no such thing as Fate or pre-determination, it follows that every action you take WILL have a genuine and very real affect on events around you.
SO BE CAREFUL - It's unpredictable and scary "Out There".