Social Science Fate

[Caesar]

This thread is getting a bit too existential for me.

 

[IAMJUNGLEMUFFIN]

I think we get to chose our path in life and all that, but I do also think that there are things that happen which are more than a coincidence. That doesn't necessarily mean it's some uber profound situation or meeting though.

One of those things that fits under the the "spritual" umbrella, like intuition, karma, de ja vu etc. I know alot of people wouldn't place significance or categorise these things in the same way I do, but certain experiences I've had have influenced that.

Edit. A few years ago: Had just gotten to work, starting a new job, one of the lads I worked with walked out the back to check it out, comes back a few minutes later saying something about how he'd just had the biggest case of de ja vu in his life. I tell him to be careful today because bla bla bla (long story, too long to go into detail). 2 hours later a 10m steal I beam fell on my head.

 

[Impunity!]

Edit. A few years ago: Had just gotten to work, starting a new job, one of the lads I worked with walked out the back to check it out, comes back a few minutes later saying something about how he'd just had the biggest case of de ja vu in his life. I tell him to be careful today because bla bla bla (long story, too long to go into detail). 2 hours later a 10m steal I beam fell on my head.

And from that day forth you were a Dockers supporter

 

[Hoffy95]

And the watermelon helmet was forever broken.

 

[Saint KFC]

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 -

It isn't. It's cause + effect and chaos theory/"the butterfly effect".

 

[amj11]

Was only reading a book concerning the concept of fate the other day. My mothers into psychic mumbo jumbo books and this particular book was explaining the so called after life and what happens to the soul after death

The basic gist of the idea of fate is that everything that has happened and will happen in our lives good or bad, has already been determined to and extent..by us ourselves, or our soul.

Essentially ties into the notion of reincarnation. When we die we supposedly pass through into a spiritual 'waiting room'. Before we return from this spiritual 'waiting room' as the author calls it, we plan our next life, from who our parents will be, our friends, what we will do in life and even all the traumas we will experience.

Everything we choose is designed to either help us learn and evolve as a spiritual being, and/or help others around us to do the same.

So for example, say youve been diagnosed with cancer. While this obviously sucks, this has supposedly already been planned by you as part of your life plan, and the experience is designed to help you learn and evolve.

Goes into a lot more detail in the book, but thats the general idea. I dont necessarily agree with any of it, but its one way of looking at the notion of fate i guess

 

[fairdinkum]

^ Sounds like a complete and utter load of shite, from that summary.

Then again, many would say the same about my views on 'life', which aren't too dissimilar form The Prophet's:

[YOUTUBE]AXmzcroUmdU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[IAMJUNGLEMUFFIN]

And from that day forth you were a Dockers supporter

Also decided the get back with my ex missus on the same day.

Must have hit me harder than I remember..........

 

[aussierulesrules]

This is one of my favourite quotes, which will mean something different to everyone:

“The fates lead him who will - him who won't, they drag.” (Seneca, described as a "Roman philosopher", mid-1st century AD)

To me, it means that, in life, we can either fight the way things are, or accept them and deal with them. It doesn't mean that we have to like the way things are, or that we shouldn't do what we can to improve how things will be in the future, but that there's no use in fighting how everything is right now, as it will not change in this instant and it is all exactly the way it is supposed to be, for us to learn what need to learn.

The more I learn to accept things as they are and to move forward, the more I end up learning about life and being able to make things better from here on. You also end up more at peace with things as well.

It also taught me that if something isn't working, it's probably not supposed to work that way, even if you think it will, or the "theories" say it "should". The more you fight it, the more you end up wasting your time and energy and so on and the more you end up getting "dragged" along, until you eventually stumble on the answer and realise how it does actually work. That's why it pays to just accept that it isn't working and move on and keep looking for the way that does actually work. The more you follow the "signs" the more quickly and easily you'll get there.

 

[WeetBixKid]

Kind of. I think we're slaves to our biology & the environment we're put in. So, whatever we do we were always going to do. At the end of your life, whatever has happened was destined to happen & there's nothing you can do about it. But I don't believe in fate in the sense you can make a prediction about someone's life, & that it will happen no matter what, even outside of their causal chain of events.

 

[WeetBixKid]

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 think you can even change the branches. At that moment, due to everything that has happened to you in your life, opening this thread was always going to seem the right decision. I think if you went back in time to 5 minutes before opening the thread, ceteris paribus, your thought process would play out the exact same way.

 

[Impunity!]

I don't think you can change what your willy is.

Edited for accuracy

 

[Engimal]

Life is like one of those Goosebumps choose your own adventure books. Except you can't check pages ahead of time.

Whoa, man. You just blew my mind.

 

[JuddsABlue]

believing in fate makes living with your horrid, horrible life choices easier

 

[little graham]

Undoubtedly souls are subjected to fate. Every single enlightened one will tell you. They are here for reasons, until they address them,they will keep reliving the same life, over and over again.

With the rise in population and the extinction and slaughter of so many specie, there is so many new souls having a human experience, there fate is to buy iphones, be scared of the burqa and wish they had a huge package for lambi.

They'll tell you they don't believe in fate, which is their fate itself.

You don't have control of your decisions until you have control over every experience you have ever had, because what you do next, is a result of everything you have ever done building up to that moment. It is fate, you can't avoid it.

 

[kickazz]

I kind of believe in fate in that I believe in the chain of cause and effect. I think I have free will, but honestly I don't know where that comes from.

Also, I have considered every decision I make is based on a myriad of inputs such as the environment I am in, the outcomes of decisions I have made in the past, etc.

In one sense I see the universe as a closed system that started with a big bang, and how it changed from then on was governed by the laws of physics. These laws ultimatelty decide how stars form, how planets form, how fast they move and when, what temperate they are and what elements/compounds they are made up of. If you extend this out you could argue that the beginning of life on earth, evolution of species, right up to our thoughts and decisions, which are merely electric signals and chemical processes, are just a continuation of this chain reaction of occurences that behave in line with the cause and effect to be expected by the laws of physics. Essentially, everything that ever was and ever will be is completely deterministic.

Thing is, there are infinite interactions and possibilities such that a truly deterministic universe seems highly unlikey.Taking into account randomness and stochastic processes then if you were to start the universe all over again, then you could not say that it would follow the same path, or even follow a similar path at all.

As for our individual lives, I think you'd be kidding yourself if you didn't think fate played a big part. I do believe external factors have the most control over where your life is at on the 'big' scale. Our decisions, persistance, etc is what decides where we sit in our alloted 'spot' on that bigger scale.

Free will may just be an illusion - but if you are prepared to believe in it you can make a better life for yourself no doubt - or at the very least feel like your decisions and free will played a part in your better life, even if from a purely objective 'god' point of view it is all pre-determined.