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Social Science Fate

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Cruyff14

Cruyff14

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Do you believe in it?

I am not sure if I do. Something is going on with one of my friends and it's made me change my mind and turn into a bit of a believer. Don't really want to go into detail about it, but as I said, it's made me rethink things.
 
You're the master of your own destiny, it's as simple as that.

External events influence the world around you and therefore the actions you can/can't take, but there's no master plan.

To me fate is just like karma or belief in a God; there's no tangible evidence to support them, yet people still seem to believe in them. Fair enough if you do, but I'd think it's much more productive to think about the challenges of the real world instead of vague concepts that govern what is right, wrong and what is going to happen.
 

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you may want to elaborate a little on your question OP.

If you are asking "Do you think that everything in your life is set regardless" Then no I don't beleive in fate, i believe that the fork we choose to take along life's journey determine our destiny.

I think there are small things that happen along the way that could be seen as fate. But more likely they are just coincidences.
 
PG... as an example, say meeting someone randomly and they're "the one."

I don't mean at as everything set regardless sort of thing.

IE, a friend of mine was telling me a woman in London asked a random man on the street where an ATM was, he showed her where it was, now they're married. Things like that.
 
Fate being a pre-determined destiny where one's life is planned out from the beginning of their existence? - No

Fate being the result of certain decisions and choices made throughout one's life that inevitably shapes and influences where one's life takes them? - Yes..


*although, I am not sure if this is 'fate' as such -



I met my current girlfriend randomly one night in 2006 at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne - (Bouncing Souls were playing - I came across from Adelaide to see the show) - Nearly 6 years later we are still together and I have lived in Melbourne for nearly 5 years now. Obviously if I had never met her that night, the chances of me living in Melbourne would be quite small.. (but then again, maybe I would have anyway? Who knows?)

Was it 'fate' that we met? Well, obviously the decision for me to go to Melbourne to see the show influenced and shaped the course of my life - (Likewise my girlfriend, who initially turned down the invitation to go to the show after being dirt tired from work/slight illness, but her friend insisted that she come along, and got her into the show for free... ) - Some could see these two decisions as 'fate' coming together... I see it as two decisions made by two different people ultimately effecting their lives in a substantial way, but I don't believe it was 'pre-determined'...
 
Cruyff14 said:
PG... as an example, say meeting someone randomly and they're "the one."

I don't mean at as everything set regardless sort of thing.

IE, a friend of mine was telling me a woman in London asked a random man on the street where an ATM was, he showed her where it was, now they're married. Things like that.
Click to expand...


Fate maybe, or maybe they just clicked, the way people do, I bet she has asked plenty of people for directions, the time or something similar and she didn't marry all of them.

Everyone meets their partner somewhere, somehow.
 
powerful girl said:
Everyone meets their partner somewhere, somehow.
Click to expand...

gay :thumbsd:

I am more of the belief that I am in control of my actions. What a sad realization it would be to live under the banner of fate, knowing that whatever you do you can never change would "life" has set out for you.

It's like the saying - Life is 10% the cards you are dealt, and 90% how you play them
 
RichosGuns said:
gay :thumbsd:

I am more of the belief that I am in control of my actions. What a sad realization it would be to live under the banner of fate, knowing that whatever you do you can never change would "life" has set out for you.

It's like the saying - Life is 10% the cards you are dealt, and 90% how you play them
Click to expand...

What a sad realization it would be to be a Richmond supporter, knowing that whatever you do they will come ninth each year
 

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Cruyff14 said:
PG... as an example, say meeting someone randomly and they're "the one."

I don't mean at as everything set regardless sort of thing.

IE, a friend of mine was telling me a woman in London asked a random man on the street where an ATM was, he showed her where it was, now they're married. Things like that.
Click to expand...

The guy was probably stalking her for ages, waiting for his chance.

Also sarah connor says there is no fate.
 
Not openly obvious fate as such, but every decision adds up to a loosely determined end I believe.
 
What was the line from Neo? He doesn't believe in fate because he doesn't like the idea that he's not in control of his own destiny? Or something like that.
I can see that. But then some things that affect you are outside your control, and there's nothing you can do about it.
 
I believe in strands, that we grow upwards into a myriad of branches like the world tree Yggdrasil if you will. There is no specific inlet the river flows but instead a combination of factors, incidents and decisions result in a particular event (multiverse theory). It's like that bit in Batman, one beauty product alone won't kill ya, but hairspray, lipstick and rouge will. I don't dare add rouge.
 

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The idea of 'fate' is dependent on understanding and one's perception. Plenty have brought this up. I'll go by the vague, yet general, perception – that fate is an unavoidable occurrence or event: or, 'what's meant to be'.

Under this illusion, I see it as a faulty belief.

The lives we lead are pre-determined. But this pre-determination merely creates a base. An example is our parenthood: Our genetics, our tentative morales and ethics, our socio-economics, these are the things altered beyond our control. Then, these pre-existing 'decisions' (let's call them that, for the sake of simplicity) can have a reasonable hold on your life.

But only to an extent.

Allow me to elaborate. Your parents choose your first school. The reasons are dependent on many variables, such as location, cost, ease, family ties, or whatever else. From school, the 'system' sorts you into a class. As I see it, this is another base. From here on, you may have the choice of sitting with kid A or kid B. Depending on your decision, your life will change. The immensity of this decision is down to so many variables, you simply cannot explain it. But, kid A could turn out to be your best mate until you die. Kid B could lead to nothing but poor influences and a bad life. This example is very sensationalised. We have more options than kid A and kid B. But, essentially, this is the way it works.

People often speak about these 'chance' or 'fateful' meetings. The example of a lady asking for an ATM, resulting in a marriage, is a prime example. But what if I've missed out on love? What I've forfeited and expelled a chance of undying, unrivalled love? What if I went to another footy club a few years ago, and ended up playing AFL? I can never be sure of these events. And I tend not to think of happenings in that way. I can control things, but I cannot account for the things I've missed. What has happened has happened. Fathoming my alternate life is impossible. Because there are so many options.

When people speak of fate, they speak of chance meetings. Of occurrences so extraordinary. These are the events created by our own choice. Obviously, these choices were created by a 'base' that we could not choose. But nonetheless, we have chosen these finer events... these events that are 'fate'.

I hate to simplify explanations. And I hate to use irrelevent documents as a means of 'simplicity'. But for the sake of a footy forum...

Our lives are like one of those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books. The basic backstory is assembled (parentage, geography, etc.). But the intrinsics and options are to be explored only by ourselves (do I talk to the cute girl at the bar? Do I worry about finishing this essay tonight?).

I'm simply unable to grasp the concept that our lives are mapped out. I cannot fathom that as a realistic occurrence. How is everyone's life determined? To what extent is our lifetime just an unavoidable set of happenings? There are far too many questions. They all seem to have unrealistic answers. And that's why I'm unable to think 'fate' exists.
 
^ You have no more power over the decision/choice 'you' made five minutes ago than the family you were born into. If genetics is something you had no control over, then how is anything in your life right now as it stands something 'you' had control over?

Things are as they have to be. Whether that is 'fate' seems to me to be a question of semantics.
 
No more choice? I think not.

When you are born into your family, you are not given a single choice. It happens. It is unavoidable.

Contrastingly, when I decided to re-open this thread, I had some actual decisions. I was able to intelligently interrogate the options I had. Narrowing my options simply occurred through a selectional process. I made the final decision.

These options were forced by predetermined factors. My selection of choices existed simply through other, previous choices. If I trace these choices to their origin – my birth – I arrive at a predetermined base.

As the Hawthorn poster above said, it's like a tree. The branches come out based on your decisions. The number of branches, the types of branches, you can alter that. But you cannot change the trunk.
 
I don't know if I would call it fate actually, but I do think people's lives tend to follow patterns which aren't easily explicable as just being down to sheer happenstance- maybe it is just quirks of random chance, but when you break it down into its constituent parts, random chance is not an especially explicable idea when you are talking about conscious human creatures- is it really possible for any conscious being to make a purely random decision?

One of the oddest experiences I have encountered was reading a letter my Great Great Grandfather wrote to the folks in England after he had hopped off the boat here, talking about the new job he started as a solicitors clerk- in it he rants about how he hates people who talk slowly, and mentions what a messy eater he is.

Despite there being no lawyers in the family since, I've done my articles, the same day I read the letter I remember complaining earlier about people who talk slowly, and my friends regularly pull the piss out of me for my messy eating- more than that, there were a lot of little things about the voice in the letter which made me feel like it was something I would bang out on the general board at the end of a slow day.

I am not saying it means anything, but I do wonder how hard wired we actually are.
 

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