It is your DESTINY

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I do not think that three hags who share an eyeball control my destiny.

You know Disney got it wrong, right? The Moirae and the Greae (the ones who share a tooth and an eye) are two distinct group of deities.

The Moirae are pretty kickass too.

I see life like a giant connect-the-dots without numbers. You can go from one point to another in a straight line, but you can always go in curve, see another point before, etc...In other words, certain things in life will happen regardless of what we do. How we get there and how we react are our own choices.

[Hot Shot]

I despise everything about destiny and fate because it makes me feel like I cannot control my life's direction or anything else. But the sad thing is, we don't really have a choice of what we do. Like in philosophy, we were asked "if we were to go bacl to a certain moment and everything was exactly the same (and I mean everything, including your state of mind) would you do anything differently?" And the answer is obviously no. This shows us that our choices are based on external factors partially. And our state of mind is determined by the chemical balance in our brains and the electrical impulses running through our brains. So really, we don't have much control of our lives, but this does not prove that there is such thing as 'Destiny' or 'Fate'.

[Rianoa]

i believe we all have choices but they all lead to the same future cause if we all chose our destiny that might not fit into large plan of things.

[Jessweeee♪]

I don't know. Usually I feel like there's no such thing as fate or karma, everything that happens to me is coincidental or happens due to my own or someone else's actions. But then I met someone who has the absolute worst luck.

[G13]

I'm not really sure what I believe. I was raised in a hardcore Christian family but I struggle with accepting that bunk. Hearing that whatever ty things happen in my life was supposed to happen and that it was God's will really drives me insane. I'd like to think that life is easy and that destiny or fate guides me, but at the same time the thought of having my life mapped out for me really bugs me. For me it's a tough question to answer.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Everything that happens is a direct result of an establishment formed by past occurrences, and even much of what is usually attributed to "random" chance isn't as random as it would appear. Thus everything is indeed predetermined; we just don't have the means, capacity, or precise judgment to accurately identify the determining factors. "Free will" is ultimately an illusion, but addressing the alternative is so convoluted that there isn't much point. So, in most cases, it's a convincing, acceptable illusion.

The best use of acknowledging predetermination is to accept suffering and hardships—the better to make peace with and transcend them. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XlqCFi6o-E#t=4m">Everything must be this way</a>.

You were doing well up until you quoted The Doors.

When it comes to Free Will, I'm more on the fence in regards to it. Intuitively I know that Free Will shouldn't exist given the generally deterministic nature of reality, but there's a few things that throw spanners in the works for me. For one thing, consciousness is a by-product of what is an otherwise unconscious set of atoms. Whatever the mechanisms of it coming about (I don't believe in a soul or the afterlife fyi), strictly speaking there's no reason for it to exist. The very existence of a consciousness to me suggests a mind capable at the very least of thinking about it's actions. Were we simply creatures of pure reaction then consciousness would be superfluous. There's other tits bits in regards to quantum mechanics, which I barely understand, such as the idea of virtual particles, additional dimensions in String Theory and the possible existence of parallel dimensions that mean I don't think it's viable to say with any certainty that Free Will doesn't exist. I'm not saying that it definitely does, I'm just sceptical about anyone that thinks that the current laws of the observable Universe in it's present state, that of linear time of action into effect, are the whole story.

As for the whole destiny thing, I'm not buying it. If I did believe in a purely deterministic Universe then I would equate destiny to the inevitable outcome of events. As it stands I don't see much use in supposing outside interference or inference of purpose in people's lives since whilst I don't condone the notion of physical reality being the whole story, neither do I endorse the implication that there are conscious entities taking an interest and hand in events. Even if that is the case there's no way we can distinguish intended destiny with pure circumstance. It's like I tell my friends who go to Church and think their entire lives are about some plan by God; how can you know how essential you watching Eastenders every night really is? Either everything is destiny or nothing is.

[BarelySeeAtAll]

Good luck and bad luck.

Like the old Hee haw song..doom despair and agony on me.
Lol.

The guy who was missing his front teeth..from MO..who won $265 million dollars the other day in the powerball lottery..That fellow had good luck.

I had had extremely bad luck/misfortune the last several years.
As I have been criticized on other boards for disclosing too much about my personal life I won't do that here.
I'll keep that private.
Just trust me.I have good reason to say I believe in fate.

Calm down big bad wolf *cuddles* I'll listen if ya like.

I'm not saying I'll blame fate for whatever silly mistakes I make, I just try not feeling bad about them because they were meant to happen. ^_^ My opinion anyway. Reminds me of my psychology classes and the whole internal/external locus of control thing. I have to admit I'll take the blame for things but understand at the same time it was supposed to go ahead and I was meant to be blamed. . .

Yeah that was difficult to explain. Could you tell?

[Pheesh]

For me, destiny is simply tied to what you aspire to. If you want something or want to be something so badly that you'll do anything to get it then I think that is your destiny. I know from reading/watching interviews with musicians that a very large majority say that the moment they played music they knew that was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives. As cliché as it might sound, it meant that they moved to wherever they had to move, spent a much time practising as they needed to spend, and changed their lives accordingly to make it happen.

If you're on the earth and you feel like you have a calling then that's not something that you should ignore imo.

[Breine]

Nope, I don't believe in fate or destiny.

[Unbreakable Will]

While I do believe that things will work out how they are supposed to, that doesn't particularly mean that I believe in fate. Fate reminds me of Calvinism without the religion. In essence, I believe that sometimes things happen for a reason, but not due to any form of predestination.

[Loony BoB]

I don't believe in fate. As for karma - I don't know about that, but I do believe in a slight bit of "you only get what you give". I believe that basically if you treat people badly all your life, you're going to get treated badly by people all your life. That kind of stuff.

[oddler]

I don't believe in fate. As for karma - I don't know about that, but I do believe in a slight bit of "you only get what you give". I believe that basically if you treat people badly all your life, you're going to get treated badly by people all your life. That kind of stuff.

I guess Karma would be the right thing to call it if it was random people treating you well for you treating other random people well. But I don't think that's the case, either way.

I don't believe in "fate" or "destiny". If I treat others well, then maybe they'll treat me well because of my actions. Maybe not; it's their choice.

[Meat Puppet]

i am
hic
i am lacapa... er, you know
laplace’s demon
I’m just a little to drunk right now to give you any straight answers
call me in a year or so

[Peegee]

Everything that happens is a direct result of an establishment formed by past occurrences...*snip

You were doing well up until you quoted The Doors.

When it comes to Free Will, I'm more on the fence in regards to it. Intuitively I know that Free Will shouldn't exist given the generally deterministic nature of reality, ...*snip* There's other tits bits in regards to quantum mechanics, which I barely understand, *snip*.

As for the whole destiny thing, I'm not buying it. If I did believe in a purely deterministic Universe then I would equate destiny to the inevitable outcome of events. As it stands I don't see much use in supposing outside interference or inference of purpose in people's lives...*snip*..Either everything is destiny or nothing is.

Snipped the parts I won't be responding to.

Is this a discussion on free will, or the inability to control events in/despite or free will? I disagree that free will exists -- not in the sense that we are free to do whatever we want (since there are ideas like social contracts and physical limitations), but at the same time I have to factor in that we are[may be] aware of infinite possibilities for each action (I can make all sorts of typos typing this sentence even though I typed it flawlessly!). That said, I don't think awareness of possibilities means those possibilities are all equally valid (ie we don't throw a D∞ every time we perform an action) - we're simply aware of it and it affects our interpretation of the consequences of results.

I interpret all events using this metaphor - you throw a bunch of rocks down a cliff - they bash into each other, and if you had enough information, you can predict in advance what has and will happen with the interactions, right up to the starting position(s) of the rocks. Events that we can measure that relates to 'determinism' occur in the macro universe, while events in the microscopic universe may be determined, but the accuracy becomes less and less so. Since the topic is related to meaningful, macroscopic destinies (ie whether you'll marry), I think it's all determined.

Of course this means everything that happens to me has no transcendant meaning (yay), stripping me of personal responsibility and merits! I'm liking this more and more

[Zeldy]

I believe that everything happens for a reason, so that counts as fate.