Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Three concepts that are kind of in a similar space, but don't all mean quite the same thing.
Fate is a strong line in Western thought going back to at least the classical Greeks, probably much earlier. It basically says everyone, even deities, are bound by a force of nature that guides and controls their lives. It says we have no control over events in the end. Predestination for sure (destiny is a related concept) and probably predeterministic in many manifestations. Stoicism is pretty much defined by a belief in fate and that how we live and react to that fate is what matters, since our choices and decisions don't necessarily matter on a big scale.
Karma has an element of Fate in it, but we do have some control over it, too. This concept from Eastern philosophical and religious traditions says that how we live now affects our future lives and selves. So if am a total a**hole in this life, maybe I will be somehow under the control of a person like me in my next incarnation. We do have some control but not over our present life. And what we do today can affect us in multiple incarnations down the road. So Fate based on our past lives, which means can make things better for our future selves. Of course, Buddhism teaches that by following the teachings of Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha, we can get out of that neverending chain of incarnations. Some Hindu schools have similar teachings, too.
God's Will comes from the Abrahamic traditions and basically says that events that happen beyond our control are the will of Yahweh, God the Father, Allah, or whatever name our tradition of choice uses. Like Fate, we may have little or no control, save to accept God's will for us and live in accordance with it. Like Karma, God's will may be affected by how we live, believe, worship. It remains beyond our control, but we can maybe hope to influence God to favour or help us. Or not. For instance, if you accept the predestination of strong Calvinism, your ability to affect God's Will for your life is pretty limited. Again, it's more about living in accordance with God's Will, making it once more akin to Fate. I would argue that God's Will in this type of thought is really a modern, religious form of Fate.
The strong determinist strain in modern secular thought, mostly a result of recognizing how powerful things like the standard model, relativity, and genetics are on our lives, is kind of a modern take on Fate, replacing Fate as a force of nature itself with Fate as the consequence of living in a universe governed by deterministic principles. There are, however, weaker versions of this scientific determinism that see room for individual control in things like the uncertainty principle.
So what say WC2? Do you adhere to any of these deterministic philosophies? Why? How does it impact your daily life, morals, etc.? What other options do you know of?
Fate is a strong line in Western thought going back to at least the classical Greeks, probably much earlier. It basically says everyone, even deities, are bound by a force of nature that guides and controls their lives. It says we have no control over events in the end. Predestination for sure (destiny is a related concept) and probably predeterministic in many manifestations. Stoicism is pretty much defined by a belief in fate and that how we live and react to that fate is what matters, since our choices and decisions don't necessarily matter on a big scale.
Karma has an element of Fate in it, but we do have some control over it, too. This concept from Eastern philosophical and religious traditions says that how we live now affects our future lives and selves. So if am a total a**hole in this life, maybe I will be somehow under the control of a person like me in my next incarnation. We do have some control but not over our present life. And what we do today can affect us in multiple incarnations down the road. So Fate based on our past lives, which means can make things better for our future selves. Of course, Buddhism teaches that by following the teachings of Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha, we can get out of that neverending chain of incarnations. Some Hindu schools have similar teachings, too.
God's Will comes from the Abrahamic traditions and basically says that events that happen beyond our control are the will of Yahweh, God the Father, Allah, or whatever name our tradition of choice uses. Like Fate, we may have little or no control, save to accept God's will for us and live in accordance with it. Like Karma, God's will may be affected by how we live, believe, worship. It remains beyond our control, but we can maybe hope to influence God to favour or help us. Or not. For instance, if you accept the predestination of strong Calvinism, your ability to affect God's Will for your life is pretty limited. Again, it's more about living in accordance with God's Will, making it once more akin to Fate. I would argue that God's Will in this type of thought is really a modern, religious form of Fate.
The strong determinist strain in modern secular thought, mostly a result of recognizing how powerful things like the standard model, relativity, and genetics are on our lives, is kind of a modern take on Fate, replacing Fate as a force of nature itself with Fate as the consequence of living in a universe governed by deterministic principles. There are, however, weaker versions of this scientific determinism that see room for individual control in things like the uncertainty principle.
So what say WC2? Do you adhere to any of these deterministic philosophies? Why? How does it impact your daily life, morals, etc.? What other options do you know of?
