Most people who think that their lives are pre-ordained (Presbyterians, for example) are looking back, not forward. By over-analyzing your life, you can make connections between events that seem to have been ordained, when in fact it’s mostly random, i.e., “If I hadn’t moved to Cleveland, I wouldn’t have met Carol, whose friend turned out to be the sister of the person whose football team had a cheerleader on it that turned out to be my future wife!”
Wow … freaky … on Saturday I was contemplating starting a thread on this exact same topic, but with a different slant.
I think “everything happens for a reason” is different than “what goes around comes around”. The former is like “fate”, while to me, the latter is “karma”.
I believe in fate, but not in karma. I have no religious beliefs whatsoever.
It’s been my experience that just when you get the most frustrated or stressed or surprised by life, things seem to ‘fall into place’ somehow and you end up with better results than you ever could’ve imagined. Sometimes those results aren’t immediately clear, but you can always trace the positive things in your life back to negative times.
Caveat: nothing TRULY bad (like the death of a child) has ever happened to me - knock on wood. I’m referring to things like relationships, job changes, moving, ‘bad’ decisions that set me on the path to ‘good’ decisions. Stuff like that …
I live to serve.
I also subscribe to the Karmic Payback Philosophy.
Sometimes with glee not the doper, though there is nothing wrong with him.[s/zie] and relish [size=1] dijon… Watching some get their just desserts for years of asshattery or total denial of the situation or finally paying the piper for dancing the tune of being a freeloading, titsucking leech. I’m not bitter. really.
Yay for Schadenfeude!
Causes beget effects, but other than that, I don’t see evidence for “reason” in the unfolding of events.
No. What we see as reasons for the things that happen around us are the interactions of large numbers of unrelated processes, sufficiently complex to provide essentially random results. IMO karma’s a bogus concept as well; it’s just averaging by another name.
I like randomness; I prefer randomness. It gives me the impression, rightly or wrongly, that with a relatively small effort I can change at least some outcomes.
You rang?
Like many theories, why not look simply at the evidence? (Not anecdotes though, please.)
Define your Grand Design, then see if the World matches it.
Are there evil people who live in luxury all their life?
Are there good people living in misery and dying young?
Conclusion: Gravity exists, Grand Design doesn’t.
I’ve already tipped over.
Random chance works in mysterious ways. 
Join us…
Alot of you have really hit the nail on the head. Choices make consequences. I have to say I’m a big believer in the subconcious leading one to make certain choices that take us down paths we wouldn’t logically choose, but are what we need in order to learn and grow.
One time I heard the phrase “Your subconcious is God” and that really makes sense to me.
Heh. Just a couple hours ago I overheard a classmate saying that “Everything happens for a reason”. I vehemently disagreed - I’m with elfbabe: Of course everything happens for a reason, but that reason isn’t to guide, teach, or show us something valuable - the reason is cause & effect.
Whether we say it is cause and effect, coincidence, destiny, divinity, or whatever…aren’t these all just metaphors for the same “thing”? Whatever that “thing” may be, we each have our own way of explaining our world around us (including odd occurences) using one metaphor or another we personally choose to grasp life…a personal, universal model, if you will.
And, whatever model or metaphor we pick, there is still one problem in all these models, at least in most Western cultures…the injustice in life when the sober one will be killed as the drunk driver slips away without a clue of what has transpired, as one example. (I WAG Eastern cultures may say karma from a past life may explain what seems to be injustice in this life.)
As food for thought, isn’t it possible all our models for the patterns (and exceptions) we see in life are really all the same shrouded under different names?
- Jinx
Frankly, this supports the OP.
If you make something out of it, then the reason things happen is because of what you gave done. (Plus any universal interventions).
If you make nothing out of it, your harvest is from the ignorance you have sown.
I believe that there are no mistakes/errors in the universe (except those we introduce) and that everything has and happens for a reason.
Well, at least not in your simplistic definition.
What maks you think these criteria are the ones upon which the Universe operates? Cathechism?
Just wanted to see your name as a qoute! As for the OP, I’ll have you all know that I don’t buy it, but for the whole “karma” thing goes, I’m a complete asshole and get rat-fucked by the cosmos on a semi-regular basis. The “downside” is, I come back stronger and better nearly each and every time. The time that counts is the last one…
But mostly shit just happens for random, reckless reasons. You start believing stuff is “preordained”, you might as well give up all responsibility for your actions. And those of others.
I don’t believe anything happens for a reason but I believe in cause and effect, When you think of bizarre coincidences they are really not that strange when you consider the trillions or more variables in the universe, just due to the sheer mathematics these odd coincidences must happen sometimes no matter how low the chances eventually things will come together just the right way for them to happen.
Gee, Catfish, I get the opposite take from the same conclusion.
Because I believe that nothing is random and that everything happens for a reason, I am compelled to determine the reason and adjust my actions to perfect my performance.
If everything was random, then I woldn’t give a rat fuck and just maximize my pleasure at the expense of others!
Maybe the whole thing is one huge mistake?
I opt for cockup over conspiricy.
There is no-one in charge.
And some days you get to man the dookie howitzer. Those are the best.
Although the expression we hear said by the would-be profound is ‘everything happens for a reason,’ what is really meant is ‘everything happens for a purpose.’
As has already been pointed out, of course everything happens for a reason. That’s pretty much a tautology. But a purpose? IMO, no. This is something said and believed by people trying to deal with ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.’ To believe it, you must believe that there is an Entity watching everyone’s life closely, and taking a hand in order to bring about desired results. In other words, an omniscient, omnipotent God who likes fucking with our heads, and who can play really nasty. It’s possible, I suppose, the way it’s possible that purple monkeys will fly out of my rectum and start a conga line on my desk, but I see no evidence for either.
No, things don’t usually happen for a Greater Purpose. But that doesn’t mean we can’t turn most things, even tragedies, to our good. As has been said already, we can learn from every situation, but especially those that are the results of our own mistakes.
Well, that’s one option, but I believe in a purposeful existence (everything has or happens for a purpose) and I don’t believe in such an Entity.
Rather, I believe that Spirit is more of a conglomerate, and that the Whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nothing happens in a vacuum; each thing we do reverberates throughout the cosmos affecting consciousness, changing it and guiding it toward our collective goals. We are what we create, and we are the creator.