Fate or Free Will?
I
was told once that everything happens for a reason, and apparently most people
have heard that, and they use that same phrase to comfort themselves when
anything goes wrong. But these same
people, the ones who say, “everything happens for a reason” do not believe in
fate. Instead they believe they truly
have free will. But if everything
happens for a reason, then it is only logical to assume that it was meant to
happen at that time and therefore it was their fate, which means that no matter
what had happened previously it would happen anyway. So do we have free will, or is everything
predetermined? Does everything happen for a reason?
Obviously, there is no true way to test whether we truly
have free will or not, however, in believing in fate one admits that there is
something ‘out there’ bigger than themselves.
Therefore, in the belief of fate one inadvertently believes in a higher
power. Because there cannot be fate without
something pulling the strings, something making sure that fate is
fulfilled. In the Bible, God says he
gives us our free will, which would mean that me typing this is something I came
up with on my own and not something I was supposed to do. It means that each individual decision we each
make is truly our own whether it is to eat another slice of pizza or get that
bowl of ice cream you know you don’t need but want so badly.
Fate is the opposite.
Fate is essentially saying that from the moment we are born our lives
are already planned. No matter what we
do through our lives, if we are meant to be a lawyer that is what will happen,
if a girl gets pregnant at sixteen it is simply because that is what is ‘written’
and therefore it will happen that way.
In Greek mythology there were creatures that watched over the fates of
everything, and it is a good example of what it would be like if fate is
true. If fate is true then there must be
a higher power watching over to make sure that what is supposed to happen
happens at the time in which it is supposed to happen. Therefore, if you declare as an atheist you
cannot believe in fate.
So do we truly have free will, or are we all just condemned to our
fates?
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