Fate

Posted by James Marriott on April 6, 2010 under Religion / Politics | Read the First Comment

In this blog I want to very briefly discuss what fate is, what it means and to question your belief in it. This blog is a summary of a very long essay I once wrote on the subject of fate but that went on for over 5,000 words (boy can I waffle).

What is fate?

To me fate means the belief that a future event is certain to happen regardless of any actions or decisions a person makes now or made in the past.

Whilst we may be free to make our own decisions, the end result will always be the same and therefore our decisions are reached not because of free-will but because they lead us to the end result and thus we could not have made an alternative decision unless the alternative results in the same event occuring.

What about God? No. You can’t believe in fate and God – assuming your own definition of God is along the lines of omnipresent all-powerful being that basically controls everything. Nothing can oppose God’s will and nothing can influence fate. If fate can be influenced then it can’t be set and that breaks the above “rule”.

Do you believe in Fate?

No, I doubt you do. Let me ask you this: Would you be willing to throw yourself in front of a train or perofrm any other action that would normally result in instant death? No, you wouldn’t. Of course you wouldn’t. But why not? After all, if you believe in Fate then you believe that your moment of death is a fixed point in time that can’t be changed regardless of any action you take. In other words, if it is your time to die then you will die at that time whether you throw yourself under a train or not. At least it would be quick. If you don’t do it then your death might be a horrible, painful one! NB. Please do not try any of this. I am NOT telling you that you should go and throw yourself under a train or in other way try and do something that might result in death or injury. This is merely a point I am making.

Do I believe in fate?

Of course I don’t. What kind of f**ktard do you take me for.

What should you do now?

Well if you still believe in fate then fine but you HAVE to accept what that means. You are not in control of your own life. But on the up side, you don’t need to work, you don’t need to do the lottery, you don’t need to look where you’re going; in fact, you need not do another thing for the rest of your miserable life because fate will be there making all the things that need to happen, happen. Well done you. How-ever, if you don’t believe in fate then congratulations. The world is your oyster and you are free to do what-ever you like for no other reason that you want to do it but remember, this means you have no one to blame but yourself.

I would relish the chance to hear other people’s thoughts on this matter so comments are open and I will try and respond to all of them.