Everything happens for a reason?

Question

When someone says, "Everything happens for a reason," what kind of philosophical thinking would that fall under? Does this involve free will or divine intervention? Or is it just a way to explain a bad situation?

Answer 1

Fatalism/Defeatism/Determinism.
I think it all depends on who the thinker is, as in if they believe in such a divine power or not.
But I guess, it's a pretty ambiguous thing to say.

Answer 2

In the conventional sense this expression is meant to imply some form of divine intervention.

To answer your question the mode of philosophical thought associated with this expression is called Determinism. Determinists believe that existence has been set in motion and everything that happens is an effect of some previous cause. since the chain of cause and effect cannot be broken, everything that will happen in the future has been pre-determined since the big-bang or creation or whatever set the series of cause and effect into motion.

Philosophers have also argued that the free will of humans is evidence that determinism is false. It appears as though we have the ability to do whatever we want, therefore we are not confined by the eternal series of cause and effect that determinism describes.

Countering this claim, others argue that free-will is a complete illusion, (and modern neurology has shown that at least some of it is).

Neither side can really truly be proven, but its fun to think about. keep asking cool questions . Peace.

Answer 3

There are two different meanings one could take from the statement "everything happens for a reason."

Most of the time when you hear that, what the individual actually means is that everything happens for a PURPOSE. Purpose should not be, but usually is, confused with REASON.
The idea that everything happens for some type of human-centered purpose could have evolved from our need to feel - well...important, and indisposable. This is the obvious human egocentrism that plagues us all at one time or another, but I feel it is an incredibly narrow and selfish way to view existence. Most monotheisms hold the view that the universe's ultimate purpose is to harbor human life, or that the creator of the universe is involved in the individual lives of human beings.

To take the phrase to mean REASON instead of PURPOSE would be an argument of determinism. Everything happens for a reason because it must have a preceeding cause. Every event is an unavoidable result of its cause, which is in turn an unavoidable result of its cause, and so on, until every cause and every effect are completely interlaced with each other and the whole of physical history. This view of causality has been around QUITE some time. I believe the first recorded instance of this argument was from Aristotle, who also concluded that if you trace the chain of cause and effect back far enough, you must come to a first cause, which of course would be God. This is assuming that there has to be a FIRST cause.

Descartes tried to evoke the arguments of both determinism and free will, arguing that all physical things were controlled by causality, while the human mind was independent of it. He tried to connect the human mind with its impact upon the physical human body while still rejecting its subjectibility to determinism, but his logic dropped out at that point.

Newton's laws are really the base and proof of motion that guides the physical atoms of the universe, and nothing in the universe is independent of it...of course, there's no way to be sure of that, but there's no real reason to believe otherwise. Or...is there? I suppose there must be a reason ;)

Anyway, REASON or PURPOSE, they are both laid out here, so take your pick.

Answer 4

Imagine if your brain predicts the future, but all it has to work with is its self. So it makes an idea of the future that it thinks you want, and then it makes your thoughts into such a way that you decide to pursue that particular future. And amazingly, because we listen to our thoughts or feelings like "they are us" then their goal becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Every time (once in a rare occasion) do you escape what your thoughts and feelings have planned for you, then you will not have much of a "destiny" and you will have a greater level of control and satisfaction with the outcomes that you create.

So the statement really means "Everything happens because you want it to...because you are the one that creates the reason for it to happen."

In essence, you actually always have "free-will" but its just that it has more than one level to it. And if you focus too much on the future rather than the exact present millisecond, then you will feel like you have little control over your life or circumstance.

Some people say that's the "law of attraction" but I think you should not go there because that "field" is polluted with self-help gurus that want your money and promote delusion and the ideals that happiness is what you attain for *yourself*....And their version of "happiness" inevitably involves some level of ego-centrality.

Answer 5

If you want something bad enough you will get it. That also explains the reason behind persistence.

It is like falling into a river and swimming to the shore. The river's current would be the current of life, and the act of swimming would be the individual's effort. The current might safely push the individual to the shore, but it might not. Therefore, it is also up to the individual to swim alongside the current with some bias toward the shore.

Answer 6

Many things happen for no apparent reason. Your life may change because of these happenings and you are forced to adapt and adjust. For believers, everything happens for a reason is a way of helping them feel god's touch in their lives. However, those who follow the path of science and reason see the natural randomness in everyday life. Actions you took the day before may or may not affect the actions of tomorrow. This is not to say that life is completely random, but just as quantum physics has shown the uncertainty that exists throughout the universe, we as humans must accept a certain level of uncertainty in our lives.

Answer 7

A very interesting question, for what is a commonplace expression (certainly here in the UK).
I think the origin of this phrase is our deep-seated need to "explain" everything- we have an analytical, scientific mode of thought and we see "cause-and-effect" everywhere (whether divine or not). But this view is essentially naive and masks the randomness in much of nature- Einstein found it hard to believe that "God could play dice"

Answer 8

I feel if I change one thing in my life then it would affect everything thereafter. I feel everything is a chain reaction and when choices are made it will affect the next choice that we decide to make. For instance if I didn't marry my husband then I wouldn't have the exact same beautiful children that I have today. I certainly do believe that we always control our destiny and we are the drivers in our lives but when we are behind the wheel we are making moment by moment decisions on what will happen next. Saying "Everything happens for a reason" gives people the understanding that they can make a difference by just putting their best foot forward always!!!". Don't just let things happen to you because you may be waiting around for a long time. Get up and start putting the right foot forward.

Answer 9

I myself do believe that everything does happen for a reason. Maybe it is divine or maybe it is just a way of explaining a Bad situation. But it depends on ones beliefs of whether the existence of Jesus Christ is rather false or true. It all depends on the person, an their religion.

Answer 10

It's solipsism. Why must everything happen for a reason? That seems an awfully anthropomorphic view to take, that the whole universe revolves around us and was made with us in mind. Things happen. Accidents happen. Coincidences happen. $hit happens. Why is it so discomforting to so many people that some things happen for no reason?