Try to answer this question WITHOUT resorting to religious dogma:?

Question

Try to forget what any "book" says or what you've been told to think according to a particular religious dogma.

Do you feel you have a destiny? If so, why do you feel that and what conclusions have you already made?

Answer 1

Yes, I do feel I have a destiny regardless of what books or religions say - and that's beacuse I have always strived for some things in my life and I'm drawn towards things that help me get there - but at the same time I feel my destiny is not written yet, it is being written as I go.

My character and my aspirations do indicate where I am going - but it is my choices in every moment that write down my destiny.
I don't see destiny as something already written down for me from my birth till my deathbed, no no no.

I'm the master of my destiny - and I feel free to know it's all up to me. Like one proverb goes:

''Every man is the architect of his fortune.''

Answer 2

The only reason I would resort to religious dogma in anything is if I felt those terms were relevant to the reader. It actually makes it simpler having that frame of reference eliminated.

I believe purpose, or in other words, intent, is the only way anything in our sentient universe exists, so I feel I do have a destiny, a pretty much inevitable result of mixing the initial ingredients of 'me/my life'. I suppose, for the most, that on some level of mind /a life/ is a second nature event to that conscious awareness of self, somewhat like manouvering round a corner, you set the intent, have the body in position, and really you don't have to think about the rest, so it becomes the destiny of the body, divised by the mind and the body just walks the path to it. Seems to me if we can delve deeper and deeper into our reality to find underlying levels of intelligent behaviour, as we have done in biology and physics many times, then this nature of things suggests more macrocosmic layers of reality than ours acting basically under the same principles.

So consider the old thought experiment where we imagine the possiblility that our whole universe is but an atom of a larger universe. The conclusion of that is that we have a destiny which follows the nanoscopic scale of the larger universe. We would be the microcause of a miniature event in that universe, and hence somewhat dominated by its causality. If our universe is the atom of a booger in a giant kid's nose, and he picks it and that event equals our whole lives, then his finger is the decider, our destiny is to mould with other atoms around his finger and what we do is creating the subatomic conditions for him to feel his boogers and our destiny is to be exactly where he needs us to be for that to happen.

But I don't believe our free will is constrained by the actions of a greater universe in which we exist. By all reasonable accounts its quite an expansive array of fields that makes up avaliable reality, non locality is a fact, and we do have superpositional wave states in the very makeup of our physical matter. So we only be the kid's booger because we choose to, we have far too much delocalised effect on our environment for it to be something we have not chosen on some level.

So all up, we have both destiny and free will... all with absolutely no religious connotation :)

Answer 3

Of course I have a destiny. Religious dogma aside, my feeling is that my destiny is to be the best person I can for my wife and children, to teach them love in the hopes that they make the world a better place.

Answer 4

des·ti·ny
–noun, plural -nies. 1. something that is to happen or has happened to a particular person or thing; lot or fortune.

Intriguing definition...Ok some of you are saying NO because we have free will to choose our course in life..Ok at last count close to 85% OF THE WORLD believes in some form of all powerful creative being..the vast majority is some form of christian belief..a funny side note the bible states NARROW AND WINDING THE PATH TO HEAVEN, WIDE and STRAIGHT THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION funny because the vast majority of the earths population is christian..anyway almost everyone believes in some form of higher creative being...with the ability to know and see all things..I don't know about you but most of the time I can about tell what someones gonna do..how hard would be to set someones destiny if you already knew what choices they would make...ok so failed on the religious dogma aspect but...I have seen people that by all accounts shouldn't have become successful at anything..yet seemed to fall into just the right place right time...with the right people to have something completely change their lives in one night...I've seen to many suspicious accidents things that happen at JUST the right time almost to perfect to be blind luck but was..no there's destiny there is a great plan..way to many perfect accidents for there not to be...

Answer 5

I do not believe in pre-destination, therefore "No" I do not have a specific destiny. Anyone's eventual destiny is the result of decisions made, luck, help and other factors. I can choose what I want to be my destiny and works towards that point ( goal ).

Answer 6

I do not believe in destiny . I am not a weakling . I still work for my meals . The day I cannot ,I would prefer to cease to exist than blabber about destiny ,luck et al. I strongly believe that whatever happens is a big co-incidence and that your own free-will made it possible for you to let the thing happen the way it did

Answer 7

I believe that each person has a lesson to teach someone else, through their actions, so in a sense this can be destiny; but its not as cut and dried as "Im destined to be famous/write a book/ etc", it'll be subtle things (Remember the Starfish story?). The flip side is tho, once you served your purpose, you're no longer needed...
I know that sounds harsh, but what in Life isnt?

So we all have a destiny, we just don't particularly know what it is.
My conclusion? We need to open our eyes and our hearts a bit more (in light of VT, a LOT more)...

Answer 8

All living beings have a propensity to experience that which is relevant to their internal nature. Interactions with the external reality from their view point is unique and develops characteristics that mirror changes within their internal constructs. Dharma, Karma..etc are not religious dogmas but spiritual concepts of purpose and universal balance.
Each of us, while fundamentally similar, traverse very different and unique paths to the same destination!

Answer 9

Well, I am contemplating on doing some Reiki in about a month or two. I am reading up on a book about it.

I feel that it is my destiny to write a non-fiction book about life in general. I know it will be a long one, but you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Going on Yahoo! Answers! by the way has brushed up my writing skills. Not just little. Tremendously!

Answer 10

Nobody tells me what to think. I consider all information presented to me, and then form my own opinions. Of course I have a destiny. It may not be the one I'm hoping for, but it's not going too badly so far.