The Pattern of Things

October 23, 2007

A long time ago, when god equaled truth and toilets were holes in the earth, fate and destiny were a given. Fate is usually understood to be the force that drives one's destiny, but for purposes of this short treatise, we will take them to mean the same. These terms both enforce the ancient assumption that humans have limited or no free will.

 

This assumption might have arisen from the concept called religion. Polytheistic religion, as invented by the Egyptians and spread to the rest of the world by the Greeks and the Romans, is simply the belief or worship of multiple gods and goddesses. These deities were said to meddle with the affairs of man, using their magic to befuddle and control human minds and to alter events. Their mythology is littered with fantastic creatures to help them in their tasks, and some such creatures are called The Fates—three sisters, usually depicted as hags weaving cloth in a loom. One spins the thread of life, the other determines how long the tread shall be, and the last cuts the thread.

 

When the Jews invented monotheism, The Fates were transformed into another more compact version—the man in the sky. This man sees and hears everything that happens on the planet. He can be called to intervene on behalf of any number of individuals through fervent prayers. There is a special place for bad people, succinctly called "hell", and an even more special place called "heaven" for the good ones. This sky-man controls the universe and the affairs of humans with his omniscience and omnipotence since the beginning of time. He determines destinies. "God has destined me to be…", "I am fated by god to do…", "It is my god-ordained destiny to be the President of the Philippines."

 

Do you believe in fate/destiny?

 

I wouldn't say I do. However, I believe in the pattern of things. If you do this instead of doing this, then this will happen instead of that. More often than not someone has done it before and if his situation is not that different from yours, then you can reliably assume that you will end up the way he ended up. Multiply this by the number of people in the world. Hence, we have a complicated pattern that i believe is often mistaken for fate or destiny. Then, every so often, one aberrant individual does something no one has done before—like invent the wheel or the condom—and a new pattern is created.

 

Nothing is predestined, but some myriad number of things has happened, is happening, and will probably happen again. 


Posted by lizette at 5:09 pm | permalink

Previous Comments

So you’re seeing things more logically, right. But should we eliminate the possibility that somehow, somewhere, among the gabumpubizinillion patterns and connections that make the world, one is bound to stray? I think that’s where fate comes in.

I don’t believe that we’re meant for something, but I believe fate is more short term.

Posted by Niko at October 25, 2007, 12:27 am

of course something is bound to stray! i mentioned it already. humans are never equal. there are the normal ones, the weird ones, and varying shades in between.

i wrote about it already in my old blog. refer here http://lizlan.blogspot.com/2005/10/schlemiel.html

“straying” from the brood, so to speak, is not fate. it’s evolution.

Posted by lizette at October 25, 2007, 12:38 am

holy bajeebus! what the heck are you talking about? one thing though. i believe in odds. not in fate.

Posted by ron at October 25, 2007, 6:26 pm

Evolution is as much a flawed concept as is fatalism. If it wasn’t then we’d all be in this state of ubiquitous contentment. knowing that everything can be explained by the mutation of genes over centuries. Unfortunately, that’s not the case - because as far as we know evolution is not universal. Moreover, evolution does not seek to explain how things occur or what certain events lead to. It only seeks to give a foundation on how living things came to be. Hence, there is a lot more to discrediting predestination than just laying the foundation for each individual’s uniqueness.

These are two different concepts that don’t even clash and you’re trying to make them meet head on.

Nevertheless, the surfacing of patterns in nature is proof of fate itself - that doing certain things narrow down possible outcomes that IS fate, so I really can’t see how you think your trying to discredit that concept.

If you mean fate that people attribute to certain higher beings - it’s not in any way fundamentally different from the patterns in nature which you believe. People find meaning in attributing events to a higher cause and gives them much happiness in doing so. If you ask me that is by far a better concept to cling on to than something as cold and calculating as patterns in nature.

Posted by Marco, the site guy at October 25, 2007, 7:52 pm

yes, luff. of course.

Posted by lizette at October 25, 2007, 8:38 pm

every action has a reaction. basic rule. but where do the reactions to the actions come from?

cant it be possible that there are a set of reactions to a given action thus there is “fate/destiny”. things will happen if you do something, and they wont if you dont.

wala nanaman akong sense. haha. swimming ha?=)

Posted by paul at October 26, 2007, 12:13 am

pare, wala akong pera. :( libre?

Posted by lizette at October 26, 2007, 7:50 am

Free will would be the truth when you’re experiencing life first hand, living through the whole thing. Think of it as being a character in a story, you don’t know what’s going to happen and crap just randomly flies up at you. You do an action and you do it because you want to.

Predestination seems to be the truth when you step back and look at life as an observer. It would be like how a story already has a definite sequence of events. The character knows he acts of his own free will. But to the reader, the character is following an author’s script.

-I think I got that free will / predestination thing from one of Heinlein’s books (again) :)

Posted by Ting at October 26, 2007, 12:53 pm

awesome, as always. i agree. let’s just put it down to different language games shall we?

Posted by lizette at October 26, 2007, 2:53 pm

Hmmm free will & predestination , my best bet is the universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself, then will expand again. It will repeat this process forever. What you don’t you know is that when the universe expands again, everything will be as it is now. Whatever mistakes you make this time around, you will live through on your next pass. Every mistake you make, you will live through again, & again, forever. So my advice to you is to get it right this time around. Because this time is all you have. God doesn’t play dice he plays Golf LOL.

Posted by F1NCH at October 28, 2007, 2:43 am

i disagree. god plays dice! in the dark.

Posted by lizette at October 28, 2007, 2:46 am

God plays with loaded dice :D

Posted by Ting at October 30, 2007, 1:01 pm

he plays paper-scissor-rock with dice :-)

Posted by F1NCH at October 30, 2007, 2:16 pm