Monday, January 21, 2008

Fate versus Destiny - The Question

I've had this conversation with two different people over the last two days so I decided it was blogworthy. In this post I'll just ask the question to get input from everyone without poluting it with my beliefs. In a follow-up post in the next day or two I'll talk about what I believe.

The question: To you, is fate and destiny the same thing or different? If they are different, how are they different?

4 comments:

Silent Joe said...

Fate and Destiny do not exist. One cannot assume that there life has a purpose or plan. To do so, one would have to have religion right? God has a plan?

Well, life is what you make of it. There is not some cosmic clipboard with your name on it saying "Soanso is destined to do...."

Everything happens for a reason yes, but only reasons that you set that event in motion with whatever action. Yes some events are not controlled by you but others. That is the nature of free will. Any one person can choose to do anything or nothing.

Its YOUR choices that make YOUR life. Not a mystical force called "destiny" or "fate". Its a cop out excuse for when things go wrong. People need to man up and take responsibility for what they did and stop trying to blame an immaginary force for there screw ups.

- Joe

CMS said...

Good question. Do you remember those books in which you read a chapter and then choose which chapter to go to next, and so on? I think that is analogous to fate/destiny. Yes, you have to make choices. Not to choose is a choice itself. There is no question of free will, but I do think that there are things you are supposed to do and encounter, not only for yourself but for others. And what you choose to do in those circumstances leads you to the corresponding chapter. Maybe there is a power that knows the path that everyone takes. But the kicker is, whether there is or isn't, we surely don't know that path.

If you choose to believe that your life is predestined, that doesn't make you less responsible for your choices, but rather can offer an intangible reason for having to make them.

Or else, just wake up, eat, sleep, and die. The world won't be altered if you do. Yeah right. People still have to mourn you, hate you, miss you, bury you and remember you.

As wisely spoken in the movie classic "The Incredibles" -"It's not about you"...... or at least its not _just_ about you.

Fate is a concept so that you can surrender the need for knowing the "why" when you can't find one. You can still search, but ..... if you do believe in fate, you can chalk it up and move on to reflect later.

Only the lazy place blame without seeking the why first anyway - both inward and externally.

Bunny said...

Alright, here goes:
I think "destiny" is a bunch of hooey. Something was "meant to be" and is predetermined by some greater force. That is not why we were creates, to be puppets in some little show.
"Fate", well, I have a looser interpretation. I think that many things happen in our lives that are not necessarily in our control, but that happen for a reason. I think people are in your life to teach you something. Your experiences are there to teach you something. I suppose you could call this a little bit of "fate" but I don't label it that way.
For example: Take James and me. I don't think it was "destiny" that we be together. Either of us could have just as easily chosen someone else to spend our lives with. (Any of those choices would have had sucky consequences, though, I believe)
I think our paths crossed and we saw something in each other that connected us. We "clicked." And I think that you take that connection and build from it. Then we started sharing experiences, sharing a life, a family and blah blah blah happily ever after cakes. So, maybe a little bit of mystical, universe threw us together and then a whole lot of free will, we made choices to live as we do.
I hope this makes sense.

Ryan said...

I more or less agree with what you said Bunny but I would just swap destiny and fate. I would say your destiny was to meet James but nothing said you were going to, that was up to free will.