Do you believe in fate?

yantorsen said:
so? it doesn't need to be.
Click to expand...

You can't just assert something and believe it to be so. Back up your claims, explain yourself.

I've got a feeling we're going to be disagreeing here on theological differences but I would still like you to actually think and explain what you mean.
 
Fate is just our way of trying to rationalise and explain our lives. In truth life is like a massive, very complicated pinball machine.

Our parents throw us into the world at different speeds, and in different directions. Some of us have nice shiny ball bearings, some of us are born a bit rusty or flawed. Gravity draws us inevitably down the pinball table, and every time we hit an obstacle we can influence our direction slightly, but not hugely... because our momentum and direction is a consequence of what's already happened to us.

Sometimes you get a lucky break which helps overcome that momentum, but generally the further down the table you get, the less time you have left to make a radical change in direction. Especially as there are millions of other ball bearings rattling around the same table at the same time, all jostling for position. You can, however, aim yourself for a bonus is you look ahead and act intelligently.

Andrew McP... in desperate need of a nudge before it's too late. ;-)
 
Why do you think it's not luck?

Luck is merely probability and chance and to what I understand, that is what he's describing.
 
yantorsen said:
that isn't luck though, why is that luck?
Click to expand...

Luck is semantics. :-) Luck is what we want it to be, desire it to be, need it to be. It fills the gap where God used to live, stopping us from having to think about this kind of stuff too hard.

Luck is 'being in the right place at the right time'; talking to the stranger on a train who offers you a job, stepping off the bus moments before a car crashes into it, being in the bar at the same time as a girl who inspires you to change radically. It's not entirely random, because your previous life choices put you in that place at that time. But because of our limited grasp of statistics, probabilities, and human nature we often mistake pure random 'good/bad fortune' for something called Fate.

Good fortune or bad, lottery win or cancer, it's all meaningless unless we force it to mean something with our need to Explain Everything. There is no pattern to life, but our brains seek it desperately because of the way they're biologically wired.

But if it makes people happy to believe in God or Fate or guardian angels or whatever, that's fair enough. We all need a crutch to lean on sometimes.

Andrew McP
 
Last edited:
I believe in fate..... I didn't, but now I do.

Things happen for a reason, BUT can be affected by fortune and free-will. So to a degree, fate is just luck?

Saying that, some things that have happened to me over the last 2 years will be classed as nothing but fate in my eyes.
 
Nix said:
To be 'random', something has to be without explicit aim, reason or pattern. For you to suggest that a 'totally random' situation doesn't exist, assumes that you feel that everything has a purpose.

Don't confuse self-determination with indifferent matter.

If I were to extend your logic, one may well assume that were it not for consciousness, everything would cease to be.
Click to expand...
Amen.

Andrew_McP said:
Luck is semantics. :-)
....
Andrew McP
Click to expand...
Good post.

I wonder who in here dabbles in philosophy? In my opinion the biggest waste of space to ever grace a certificate, but there we go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom