I do.

I believe that everything that happens in your life happens for a reason or sets you up to have to do something or keeping you from doing something.

Sometimes it can be to do something tiny, or something large. Sometimes something good or something bad

I am semi-religious, and I think there are more than 1 force at work though. I am not saying fate either. But I am also not saying its luck.

Best I can describe is these 3 examples, i hope you understand what I am saying. One is past, on is present, and one is future.

#1 While visiting my ill grandfather in Nebraska, my wife, myself and my 2 month old son were sitting at a red light. My lanes turn arrow turned green and my car stalled out. I know my gas/clutch ratio was dead on but it stalled. Right as I was restarting the car, this huge truck came flying through the intersection. Would have t-boned us... Sat right though the rest of the light cycle just staring like "WTF" and not one person honked because they realized what had just happend too...

#2 My wife was going for a promotion at her job, interviewed great, but didn't end up getting the job. Well 6 month later they terminated that position due to city financial woes. She would have lost her job if she got that promotion.

#3 For some reason I think something happened today. I kept meaning to put my sons car seat back in the middle of the back (safest spot of the back seat.). But on occasion, if I go to home depot or safeway and i need the space i will put him behind me (they say naturally you protect yoru side first) and fold the other side down. Anyway any parent with a toddler knows how much of a pain in the *** it is to move a car seat, especially if you use latch. So I have left it there for a couple days. SO today I am on my way to daycare, My sons is all buckled up safe in his seat behind me and he gets carsick on the way. He hasnt been carsick in my car since he was about a year old, and just the one time. So now I have to pull over and tend to him.

I think one or two, or combo of the both of these happened. #1 I had to pull over, which kept me away or out of a situation I would have been in (for example car accident) or #2 Now that I had to wash his carseat, I already pulled it out of the car, now when I buckle it up I will put it back in the middle spot, and if something were to happen he would be in the safest spot. Or maybe it is both.

Anyway, now I sound crazy, and i totally psychoanalyze everything, but does anyone else believe everything happens for a reason.

 

I've seen too much meaningless pain, chaos, and suffering in the world to believe in fate

 

Personally, I believe all outcomes are already written. Think of it like a giant spiderweb. There are many points that intersect, but depending on the path you take you may reach that particular intersection or you may completely avoid it. This is why I believe that there can be some things like "Psychic Visions" or "Premonitions". However, just because someone can have those doesn't mean that what they see will come to pass (at least not in this particular reality). I'm not saying that it is a pre-deterministic life and whatever you do will have no bearing on the future. You do have free will to choose your fate, but each choice you make leads you to your next series of events (kind of like a choose your own adventure book).

Do things happen for a particular reason? Maybe, maybe not.

 

Agreed

 

isn't fate the only way to explain meaningless pain, chaos and suffering?

These things were meant to happen, that's the only reason some of these horrors could be.

 

I'm the opposite. Not necessarily fate, but I've seen more than enough to believe that things happen for a reason. Sure as hell hard to see it sometimes tho... and no "religion" whatsoever here...

 

I believe that one thing can set you on a path for the future. I can trace back to me buying my subaru which led me on a path to meet my wife. Would that have happened if I didn't buy it, I don't know. But I believe that me purchasing it led to have all the friends I currently do as well as my wife and now child.

 

Things just happen. Some for good, some for bad.

Is there a force guiding actions? Then there is no free will - our actions are predetermined.

I don't like that idea; I like choices.

 

This could easily devolve into a roundabout philosophical debate.

My take is that human choices lead to other actions, consequences, and results. This is of course aside from so-called "acts of God" such as earthquakes, firestorms caused by lightning, nature gone wild, etc.

I am a Christian, but I do not believe in predestination. It all comes down to decisions.

 

I like choices as well and I'm a firm believer in karma, so IMO whatever choices you make ultimately will translate into your fortune later down the road. so in a sense, I don't feel that life is scripted out quite as how the OP is describing it but rather that your good luck was an end result of a "good deed" that you may have done earlier. I believe that ultimately, everybody get's what's coming for them, good or bad.

just my outlook on life

 

IMHO coincidences, good or bad, are the basis of all 'religious' ideas. just depends on where you were raised, and what you were raised up to believe. it all comes down to coincidence and how these events are interpreted by your religion or lack of.


pic unrelated, but i thought it was hilarious!

 

I don't believe Everything happens for a reason but a lot of things do.

Was it for some special reason that you used your white cup instead of the black one for coffee? nah, probably not.

Was it for a reasons that you car was stopped, OP, right before the truck? Yes, I like to believe so.

Freedom:

My personal thoughts about this hairy topic is that we have total freedom for everything. You get to choose who you marry, what car you drive, which cup to use for coffee. How could you say there is on freedom when all of life is choices that we make with our conscious mind.

BUT I also believe that God has control of all things. Though you chose to marry her, He's the one that brought her into your life. Yes it was your choice, but he lead her to you.

if you don't believe in a God, replace that word with "greater force" or anything that fits you

and please lets not bash on religious here with pictures/words of mockery

if you want to get technical, i can too: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" so yes, that dog is looked after in my views.

 

Well if you believe all time, past present and future are all happening at once, then yes everything happens because it was meant to happen

 

have you stalled your car at other times?
do you think, "did my car stall for a reason?" every time? but you did when the truck went by, because it could have ended up badly if your car didn't stall.

i used to be superstitious but not religious but then i realized they're all the same.
though i may not believe in god or some force at work, i do hope for it because i'd like to enjoy living even after death ^^. but just because i want a matte black unicorn, doesn't mean they exist so i can have one.

some **** trip me out though, like the kennedy and Lincoln similarities.

 

If everything happens for a reason, the universe/god/whatever must REALLY hate me right now. I kind of wish I was dead at the moment...