Does Fate Exist?
Fate is a concept we all formed a definite opinion on at a young age. Nowadays, we rarely give its existence real consideration, instead using it as a quick explanation for situations we can’t understand, stating “That’s the way it was meant to be.” But is fate real?
Is it immutable that I should be sitting here right now, typing on this computer, with this bottle of water placed exactly as it is on this table in front of me? I can move the water bottle, or the table, into countless random positions, so it doesn’t feel like the whereabouts of these objects are carved into the mold of my destiny. However, if that bottle blocked a bullet, or got knocked over and spilled, forcing me to go buy another one at the supermarket where I subsequently met my future wife, it would suddenly acquire the magical seal of fate.
Indeed, if magical-seeming events always shaped the important circumstances in my life, I would certainly believe in fate. However, when I think of some of the seminal characteristics of who I am - my career, my relationships, and my knowledge - none of them were built from anything that smacks of a divine plan. Instead, it seems as though my life has been fashioned from my own purposeful actions. And yet, I still know that fate has played a very important role.
Fate, to me, is the part of life that you can’t control. Fate is nature: it is your physical makeup, it is your parents, it is the place you were raised. It is your unique chemical composition. Fate is also the random things that occur around you that you have no say in, like weather, and other people’s actions.
The events of our lives are dictated by a mix between fate and free will. Our core personality, health, and situation in life are things that have been fated to us. The decisions we make are our own free will. Relationships between people are a complex mixture of the two. They are one part your free will, one part the other person’s free will, and one part the interaction between those free wills. Exactly how the latter part breaks down - the way people’s attributes and actions intermingle, and all the chemical twists and turns that determine the ultimate state of the relationship - are a matter of fate.
Once we acknowledge the existence of free will, it becomes apparent that our situations in life are largely built by us, with fate giving us only a starting point and some surprises along the way. Those who wait for fate to deliver their entire lives will achieve far less than they desire. If we allow fate to act alone, our todays would transition uneventfully into our tomorrows. We’d grow up in the house we were born in, then move to the next logical place based on outside influences; we’d keep the friends we met in elementary school and acquire few new ones along the way; and we’d go into careers that befit our earliest interests without much thought of what else we’d like to explore. Very few extraordinary things would occur.
And it is precisely those extraordinary things - those acts of free will that disrupt the normal, passive flow of life - that make our time on earth exciting. These things can be small or big. They can be forcing yourself to go out to a social event that you don’t feel like going to, or challenging a deep, longstanding fear.
When I picture all the places I could have grown up in, all the people I could have met, and all the career paths I could have been driven towards, I see the interplay of fate and free will at work. There were many different lives within the fate I was dealt: an American born into the suburbs who loves childhood and words and entrepreneurship. I could have been a psychologist, a painter, an actor, maybe even a religious teacher; but instead I became who I am. I like to think that I chose a worthwhile existence.
It is important that people recognize the limitations of their fate - but more important that they recognize the vastness of the possibilities they control with their free will. While we cannot do absolutely anything, we can do so many things that we can consistently surprise ourselves, and make our lives as unique and meaningful as we wish.
8 Comments
Some interesting thoughts—such as how fate is essentially nature, and in a much larger scope, the very laws this entire universe follows—however, fate is defined as being pre-ordained. As such, fate being ‘random’ is contradictory to its nature, meaning it’d just be a paradox if that were the case. And due to that nature (of being pre-ordained), free will cannot coexist with fate. They are total and absolute opposites. I’m not talking about light and darkness, here—those can easily coexist within the same space. In fact, one creates the other. Fate and free will, on the other hand, simply cannot due to their conflicting natures.
Personally, I do believe that whatever happens, happens. There isn’t any, “Oh, what if…”. Whatever is done is done, whatever will be is what will be. That isn’t to say that the future is written in stone; it’s just unavoidable. There’s no invisible wizard who will know what’s going to happen nor is there some cosmic force that drives people—who, in the entirety of the universe, happen to actually be insignificant and petty—to do certain things at certain times. I believe the world rolls according to coincidence, chance, motive, action and the outcomes of those things.
As far as I’m concerned, the only real “fate” in the world is death, the one thing everything shares and will some day experience. Even stars die.
I accept your view. But let me try and explain mine further…
To God there is no time. What is in the future might as well have already happened because it is like a giant circle with no beginning and no end. Forget the director of movie scenario then. We are fully in control of our destiny. Nothing has been written for us but what we have written ourselves. That might sound like no fate and it would be if it weren’t for God. God knows our future as much as our past or present. It is only God that allows freedom and fate to co-exist. If you look at it as one big picture (events and happenings) then fate can be witnessed. I am saying that the past together with the present and future has all already happened. It is eternal. Of course, what I have written here is an idea. Not definite until proven one way or the other. You might be right yourself. I also feel that one person’s idea is right for them even if it totally contradicts another person’s idea. One might see pink and one may see blue and both would be completely correct to themselves. To each their own and live and let live I say. Thanks for your response.
“I also feel that one person’s idea is right for them even if it totally contradicts another person’s idea.”
Thanks so much for saying this. You’ve no idea how many times I’ve been labelled as wrong and attacked for saying what I think. =] It’s a nice change to finally hear the other side of the argument, but not have it pushed onto me, or have my own ideas disregarded.
Personally, I do not believe in any sort of God, whether it’s the Judeo-Christian God or one from any other culture or religion. In fact, personally, I find it an inconceivable feat to believe in any such entity. Thusly it’s difficult for me to understand how someone can so easily construct their beliefs based on a foundation of God, or other ethereal beings.
Interesting what you say, though. I’ve heard theories involving different dimensions and, on the larger scale of things, what you say is correct (according to this theory, anyway). It loosely states that there are an infinite number of universes with an infinite number of possibilities—in other words, there is a universe where I live to 100, another where I am already dead. Another where, purely for the sake of example, Pokemon actually exist. Due to the fact that infinity is, well, infinite, every possibility coexists simultaneously in separate universes and dimensions. Again, though, it is just a theory and has no real evidence. It’s just nice to think about these things and get the brain juices flowing.
Overall, though, I totally agree with what you said. People shouldn’t be judged simply for believing in something different—we should all accept one another and not fight pointlessly over things that, in the end, we may ALL be wrong about. Instead we should learn more about one another and converse about these issues, rather than blindly labelling each other and waging wars over these things.
However the world works in truth, we should all just enjoy it for what it is and how we personally observe it.
Yes, having an open mind allows people with different ideas to get on without the old ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ attitude. ‘An open mind is a learning mind’, came up with that one myself. It used to continue with, ‘...and a closed mind might as well be dead’, but I thought that might be a little harsh so I best disregard it really. I respect your views and find alot of possible truth to them. Thanks.
I think fate is what God knows about our future, which is obvious for him sisnce he is timeless. We have free will, but it’s like a multi-branch path, but God’s got the map of where every decision leads. He already knows what we will decide, and if we were told about it and changed the decision, taht would also have been known. So, fate is is innevitable, since it’s what we will do, but we are the ones who write it down anyway. God may interefere in it, but he cannot commands us to decide something, that’s our call, he only puts us the situation and we decide the outcome.
Just as it has been said before, if we take God out of the equation, so we do with fate since He is the only one who can know it. Even if you don’t believe in God, it does not mean He does not exist.
But just because you believe in God, that doesn’t make him real, either. But that isn’t what this is about.
My point is is that fate is defined as being pre-ordained; meaning that whatever is going to happen is what will happen and has been decided this way. It cannot be deleted or rewritten—otherwise, it cannot be defined as fate, and is another force entirely. Fate isn’t something you would “know”—it’s something you would “write”.
If God knows what we will decide, then why with all the branches of fate? If we take another, surely we were just going to take that one from the start? Imagine you’re on an old beaten path. Around you are several branch paths, each with something different and interesting in the distance. However, each of these paths is barred by an indestructible, impassable, unlockable gate. You can’t go around, climb over, dig under or break the gate. You have no choice but to continue following the unblocked beaten path. Except in your example, you may as well not even realise those barred paths are even there—you may as well be blind, or just keep staring at your feet all the time.
Though to be honest, I can’t see any reason for fate to exist, with or without God. If some sort of god exists, and gave humans freewill, then fate cannot exist. If no sort of god exists at all, then there can be no power in this world to write fate, so fate cannot exist. If some sort of god exists and did not give us freewill, only then fate can exist, but then why? If this god wants us to worship it (such as the Abrahamic god) and condemns all who do not, why would it write fate to ensure certain people wouldn’t believe, and would then suffer for eternity? If this god just created us because it wanted to, or by accident, then what purpose does fate serve? Surely observing automatons on stage is a lot less interesting and fulfilling than granting them freewill? And if fate—uncontrollable, unchangeable—exists, then life losing all possible purpose or meaning.
Fate, like the presence of deities, cannot be tested. To me, fate is just an excuse for what is beyond human control (one of the things humans collectively fear most, as well as things they do not understand), or for when people are too afraid, weak or lazy to do anything about it themselves.
I do agree, though. Fate can only be orchestrated by a being of infinite power and knowledge. To me, though, such a being does not and could not possibly exist, so it limits my scope on the idea of fate.
I think that God is in control of “Fate” and since he is (usually) in control, then, based on the water bottle thought, then he would know that you would meet your future spouse at the supermarket. In another sense, since the Devil is called by Jesus “the prince of this world”(because God gave Adam earth, then Adam sinned in the beginning, thereby giving earth to Satan) he’ll be in control of the bad “fate”. if you moved your water bottle, then instead of blocking a bullet, you got hit by it, then the Devil would have messed around with fate.
it’s not as complicated as it sounds.
Gosh I sound like a philosopher or my mother.
ouch
haha
I have given fate quite some thought. Where I’ve reached with it is that I see my life as like a movie that has already been made. I am the actor and God is the director. I have the free will to do whatever I desire, but God already knows the outcome. If you take God out of the picture then you can also take fate out of it I guess. All to do with your own life experience.