Destiny- does it exist?

[Simriel]

I believe in Fate. I dislike it and despise its existence, but I still believe in it.

that would be blaming it for your problems and i beieve that makes you a coward.

You Misunderstand. I do not blame fate for my problems, the think I hate is the idea that my life is outwith my control. I still believe in it however. The world has far too many small coincidences that have huge effects.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I lol'd.

My girlfriends name is destiny.

She's obviously a figment of your imagination.

There is no fate but what me make.

Please tell me this is a T2 reference.

Ahh, Not it's not.?

Don't worry about it then. Continue unmolested.

edit: that was to Pendragon.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

I believe that free will is probably the single defining characteristic of humans and that there is no Fate or Destiny, at least of the Jacques le Fataliste kind. aLaxLuthor put it nicely. It's only up to us what we will become.

But the thing is, if there indeed were Fate/Destiny, how would we know?

 

[VeX1le]

maybe. theres different possibilities like your destiny might be to not belive in destiny.@_@

 

[VitalSigns]

Really think about God and Destiny. Look at it all logically and i'm sure we can all agree it is a control method that has gone on far to long.

 

[zoozilla]

Yes, in the sense that we are all destined to die.

I happen to think that everything before death is left up to us.

Just us.

 

[quiet_samurai]

I think people want it to exist. It gives meaning to life and shows we are not just a bunch of walking talkling chemical reactions interacting with the reflection of light. And there have been certain instances in my life that are just to intriguing or detremental to have just been coincidence. So I think that there is SOMETHING that might guide us, but it only takes us to a certain point, and from there we have to decide for ourselves once we get there and make a choice.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I think people want it to exist. It gives meaning to life and shows we are not just a bunch of walking talkling chemical reactions interacting with the reflection of light. And there have been certain instances in my life that are just to intriguing or detremental to have just been coincidence. So I think that there is SOMETHING that might guide us, but it only takes us to a certain point, and from there we have to decide for ourselves once we get there and make a choice.

People don't want accountability. If their actions are predetermined, they can't be held responsible.

 

[skyfire_freckles]

The future's past? The past's future? Maybe it's just late, but...duh...IDK.

Osterman's whole life was laid before him, meaning he was trapped by it and had only an illusion of free will. This was true of everyone he interacted with and even heard of, only he was the only one who knew about it. The knowing didn't mean he could change it. In fact the knowing meant he couldn't change it.

I've been re-reading the Dune series recently (God help me), and at first Paul was able to change the future he saw by acting differently in the present, but the more he saw the less he was able to change.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

No one can tell the future, and even if you could, your knowledge of events would affect your actions, thereby changing the future you just told. My fave perpective on this was in Alan Moore's The Watchmen, the book, not that farcical motion picture.

Jon Osterman is doing his best to explain to Janey Slater after JFK got whacked that, though he could see the future, he could not really do anything about it because, to him, it was already happening. He told Laurie Juspeckzyc that everyone was a puppet, an he was just one that could see the strings. He couldn't do anything about the future, because the Osterman in the future's past didn't know what the Osterman in the present's past would know in the past's future.

Osterman: Soon you will tell me that you're sleeping with Dan Dreiburg.
Juspeckzyc: You mean, you know about me and Dan?
O: Not yet, but you will reveal it to me as we have our conversation.
J: ARGHHH!!!

Nothing ever ends.

What has always messed with my head is this: if you change something in the past, could that mean that's actually how it happened the first time because technically you'd already changed it at that point?

Please let me know if that makes any sense.

 

[Skeleon]

Nope, I don't think so, and even if it did exist, I wouldn't care.
Since I'm not omniscient I wouldn't know my decisions were predetermined so they'd still look like I made them myself that very moment.

 

[rocketseed]

There is no cosmic being. There is no heaven and hell; there is no good and evil; there is no divine intervention. Life and reality are coincidental. Earth is a cosmic accident. Deep-thinking philosophy is nothing more than the byproduct of highly advanced brains and intelligence.

In short, no.

yay! at last some one saying what i was going to

 

[Vrex360]

NO THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS DESTINY, GOD I HEAR SO MANY PEOPLE TALK ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING IS 'WRITTEN' AND 'DESTINED TO BE' AND WITH THE EXCEPTION OF slumdog millionare IT'S NEVER TRUE AND SOUNDS HACKNIED AND STUPID. MY FRIEND TALK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME, THERE IS NO FATE OR DESTINY THERE IS US HERE NOW AND OUR ACTIONS LEADING TO CERTAIN CONCLUSIONS. NOTHING MASTERMINDED HOW OUR LIVES GO!!!!!!! DESTINY IS A LUDICROUS EXCUSE AND UTTER BULLSHIT!!

In other words I respectfully disagree with the belief in destiny and instead believe we are all accountable for our own lives turning out how they do.

 

[PureChaos]

i don't reckon it does and i never understand why people say it does but we can control it and change our destiny. destiny is predetermined, can't be changed, we have no choice, that's why it's destiny.

 

[Jharry5]

No, I don't believe that all thngs are predetermined. I don't like the feeling that I'm not in control of my own life.
Of course, I also think that to think we're completely in control is a little naive. But when I look back, some things do seem to happen for a reason.

Mr. Decisive here doesn't really know... :/

 

[Gruthar]

Hmmm... my opinion is that even if you argue that people have no free will and that the fate of individuals is pre-determined, the rest of the universe is still evidently random to a degree. If you were born to become a person of great fame, and then were struck dead by a solidified chunk of airline waste, would that be your fate? If a stray asteroid smashes into the Earth and extinguishes all life upon it, is that humanity's destiny? In other words, if you believe in destiny, where do you draw the line between probability and fate? Or is there no such thing as chance in that case?

As I see it, probability must exist. Ergo, any notion of destiny cannot be absolute.

 

[Sevre]

Hmm, I don't know, I don't think we're "destined" to do something but if we follow that path we'll most likely do something and call it fate.