Some see events in their life pre-determined and already laid out for them without their knowledge. They believe in going to fortune tellers and such and believe in hearing their future because if events are already set in stone beforehand then it’s possible to foresee them. Others completely reject this idea of fate. Life is a random series of events put together. What I choose to do here wasn’t predicted beforehand; I could have chosen something else. Actions are “in-the-moment” events and can never be foreseen. The idea that challenges my understanding is the claim that fate doesn’t exist at all. The point that I want to make is not that fate determines everything, but more so that it is present in life. Maybe not in every aspect of life, but it exists. It bothers me a little when fate is completely denied from existing in life’s framework. Things that can’t be fully explained-the situation you were born into, the talents given to you- should be credited to fate. These strokes of luck, chance, or whatever other name it can be labeled fit better in fate’s framework. Everything happens for a reason.
In my opinion, fate is the part of life you can’t control. Fate is nature: it is what determines your physical makeup, your parents, your home, your chemical composition. It’s also the random things surrounding you that you have no say in, like weather, and other people’s actions. I’d probably agree with the statement that our lives are directed by a mix of free will and fate, but fate certainly exists. The core themes in our lives are given to us by fate: personality, health, and our situation. Free will guides the decisions we make. Relationships between people- probably a mix between the two. On one hand, relationships involve your free will, the other person’s free will, and the interaction between those free wills. However, the actual mesh of the interaction- the way people’s personalities and actions blend, and all the chemical twists and turns that determine the ultimate state of the relationship- are in fate’s hands.
I think the way fate and free will coexist is that fate gives us starting points throughout our life. From there, free will takes us wherever we please and that part yields many different paths in your life. Those who wait for fate to deliver everything to them will achieve far less than they desire. Relying on fate alone would work against the extraordinary happenings in life. If fate is our starting point, then we’d keep the friends we met in elementary school and make few new ones along the way. We’d enter careers that fit our earliest interests without thinking much of what else we’d like to explore. We’d grow up in the house we were born in, and then move to the next logical place based on outside influences. Few extraordinary events would happen.
It’s those extraordinary things- acts of free will that upset the normal, passive flow of life- that makes our lives exciting and worth living. Big or small, these acts change our lives- forcing yourself to go to a social outing that you feel uncomfortable about or challenging a deep fear. If you think about all the places you could have been raised in, all the people you could have met, and all the career paths you could possibly be driven towards, a balance of fate and free will are at work.
To be able to come to terms with this idea, the best way is to give everyone the freedom of their own belief. All I can do is lead my own life thinking that every gift I have and will receive has its own reason, and I should act thinking about its purpose in mind. Maybe others will experience an event in life down the road that will convince them in the direction of fate.
Fate exists but so does the “randomness.” We are dealt fate, but from that there are many different lives we can live- many choices and many outcomes.
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