Do you think everything happens for a reason?

Melisandre121

Or is this something we tell ourselves to make sense of things and make ourselves feel better? I like to think everything happens for a reason but I do wonder sometimes if life is just completely random.

XR3i

ya

cantdecide

I say this often but never mean it. It's all random. You have to take control of lots of things in life and other things you have no control over.

ladyella

A few weeks ago I might have said yes but my friends lovely mam has just passed away, completely out of the blue, for no reason whatsoever. Its very hard to come up with a justification for it. So no, I don't think things happen for a reason

Melisandre121

ladyella wrote: »

A few weeks ago I might have said yes but my friends lovely mam has just passed away, completely out of the blue, for no reason whatsoever. Its very hard to come up with a justification for it. So no, I don't think things happen for a reason

Aw, sorry to hear that.

mansize

It's a coping mechanism

glowinthedark

That's what most Religions would have you believe but its hard to justify all the bad things that happen.

Burial.

Yeah but not in the soppy perception. You f*cked up for a good reason in the same way you succeeded for a good reason. I like the Stoicism approach to it.

Felix Jones is God

No,.it's just a silly saying to make people feel better when life kicks them in the nuts.
Life is random, faith and predestination are myths and in the immortal words of Talk Talk "life's what you make it"

lazygal

No. Generally you make your choices based on circumstances. Sometimes it works out, sometimes things are unfair. Life can be completely random. It's a meaningless phrase trotted out by people who can't think what else to say.

Capt'n Midnight

As you go through life you'll collect more evidence of the conspiracy against you.

SEPT 23 1989

You have the stone cold pillars of birth and death and the rest is luck

Ficheall

Yes, everything happens for a reason. Not part of some grand plan, but because that's how cause and effect generally works.
Your girlfriend broke up with you?
Everything happens for a reason.
Probably because you're a cunt.

Your toast was burnt?
Everything happens for a reason.
Probably because the kitchen went on fire.
Because you're an idiot.

Etc.

tomwaterford

No.....you make your life

No matter how bad the hand your dealt....it's up to you to make the most of it

Olishi4

Isn't there some idea that because of the accumulation of your experiences whether you are 1 or 50 or whatever that you are kind of predetermined to react a definate way to things. Not that anyone can predict it or it justifies anything but you are certain to have that reaction.

lazybones32

Yes, in the sense that everything happens because it's been caused by someone or something.

I don't believe that absolutely everything that has happened, has happened because it was predetermined to happen exactly as it did and that it had to happen.

Capt'n Midnight

Harsh but

Column A
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/15/2f/ca/152fcaf501662adb42014e54714f0cca.jpg

Column B
The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.
- O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law


And remember
People, what a bunch of bastards

Mam of 4

lazybones32 wrote: »

Yes, in the sense that everything happens because it's been caused by someone or something.

I don't believe that absolutely everything that has happened, has happened because it was predetermined to happen exactly as it did and that it had to happen.

This I agree with . Cause and effect I think?

No matter what , either way good or bad, we learn something from it .

Joeseph Balls

No, it's like the old sayings. Recently a house came up in our area. Lovely 5 bedroom bungalow, on a 1 acre site, large lawns albeit meadows at this stage and for a bargain, in our area where houses don't come up for sale much. We couldn't make up the deposit for a mortgage yet.
My mother...
"Ah what's for you, won't pass you. Believe in that, God will look after ya".
Ended up being bought by someone who now rents it for 750 p/m. God looked after him :rolleyes:
Feck it, if you can't laugh you'd cry as they say.

jimmy blevins

I put it down to **** happens personaly. Its probably the midway point between having a religious/spiritual or totally pragmatic perspective on life. It's a modern form of stoicism for apathic slackers I suppose.


"an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain."

mzungu

No, I don't really buy into that personally. A nice thing to tell ourselves when things are going a bit pear shaped, but the reality is no. The world is indifferent to us.

FizzleSticks

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Estrellita

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

No, it's like the old sayings. Recently a house came up in our area. Lovely 5 bedroom bungalow, on a 1 acre site, large lawns albeit meadows at this stage and for a bargain, in our area where houses don't come up for sale much. We couldn't make up the deposit for a mortgage yet.
My mother...
"Ah what's for you, won't pass you. Believe in that, God will look after ya".
Ended up being bought by someone who now rents it for 750 p/m. God looked after him :rolleyes:
Feck it, if you can't laugh you'd cry as they say.

Prepare yourself for a lot of ups and downs, and a lot of people with more money than you squash your dreams of a new home. I think the house searching has to completely break you before you finally get a place. Being out done my investors will deflate and anger you. You have to believe the house is out there for you. We've loved and lost that many times you begin to believe it will never happen. Just save hard and don't set your heart on anywhere until your ducks are in a row

endacl

Melisandre121 wrote: »

Or is this something we tell ourselves to make sense of things and make ourselves feel better? I like to think everything happens for a reason but I do wonder sometimes if life is just completely random.

Pet peeve: Arbitrary. Not Random.

:pac:

Olishi4

lazybones32 wrote: »

Yes, in the sense that everything happens because it's been caused by someone or something.

A bit like The Butterfly Effect

Joeseph Balls

Estrellita wrote: »

Prepare yourself for a lot of ups and downs, and a lot of people with more money than you squash your dreams of a new home. I think the house searching has to completely break you before you finally get a place. Being out done my investors will deflate and anger you. You have to believe the house is out there for you. We've loved and lost that many times you begin to believe it will never happen. Just save hard and don't set your heart on anywhere until your ducks are in a row

Oh I know, and thank you. After years of renting were now actively saving, should have started years ago but hindsight etc

Estrellita

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Oh I know, and thank you. After years of renting were now actively saving, should have started years ago but hindsight etc

It will happen, best of luck

ForeverYoung90

It's a saying to make a person feel better about a difficult/painful situation.
Life is what you make it.
Live, love, learn...

Johngoose

Interesting thread. I actually believe there is a certain amount of destiny, but a lot does come down to you as a person:
If you don't study for your Leaving Cert you can't expect amazing grades.
If you are overweight you have to go to the gym and alter your diet to change that.
If you treat people badly it generally comes back to bite you on the ass.
Unfortunately the genes you are given at birth determine your intelligence and physical appearance.
If somebody is good-looking they have a much smoother passage through life,as regards career,the salary of their spouse and having good-looking kids.
Personality has a huge bearing on how your life is too,social butterflies tend to have a rich and fulfilling life.
I do also believe that there is some kind of path out there for all of us though,not that we all stick to the path in front of us. I do think that alcoholics and drug addicts are wasting their lives and talents. I feel depression can be triggered by knowing that we are not using our talents or abilities correctly.

playedalive

Johngoose wrote: »

Interesting thread. I actually believe there is a certain amount of destiny, but a lot does come down to you as a person:
If you don't study for your Leaving Cert you can't expect amazing grades.
If you are overweight you have to go to the gym and alter your diet to change that.
If you treat people badly it generally comes back to bite you on the ass.
Unfortunately the genes you are given at birth determine your intelligence and physical appearance.
If somebody is good-looking they have a much smoother passage through life,as regards career,the salary of their spouse and having good-looking kids.
Personality has a huge bearing on how your life is too,social butterflies tend to have a rich and fulfilling life.
I do also believe that there is some kind of path out there for all of us though,not that we all stick to the path in front of us. I do think that alcoholics and drug addicts are wasting their lives and talents. I feel depression can be triggered by knowing that we are not using our talents or abilities correctly.

This is a balanced way of looking at what happens in life. I think looking at life events as if they happen for a reason is a way to console your soul (no pun intended). For example, when I lost my last job, I was able to take the time to learn to drive and look after my mental health which was affected by personal issues the jobs had exasperated. Also in my current job, the fact my manager is an absolute bullying c**t is challenging me to stand my ground and develop some backbone instead of wanting to curl up in a ball and cry and feel sorry for myself.

weemcd

The universe cares little for your sense of sentiment, your feelings, your entire existence in fact.

There is cause and effect, random forces and interactions. There is no divine narrative set out for your life.

Vic_08

ladyella wrote: »

A few weeks ago I might have said yes but my friends lovely mam has just passed away, completely out of the blue, for no reason whatsoever. Its very hard to come up with a justification for it. So no, I don't think things happen for a reason

So war, famine, genocide, incurable epidemics, natural disasters are all part of the great plan but your friend's ma died so it's all just too unfair?

I have scant respect for people with stupid supernatural beliefs, I have none for those so narcissistic to ditch their beliefs at the first sign of personal tragedy.

Why did God do this to ME, why, Why, WHY.

Fred Swanson

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livedadream

Melisandre121 wrote: »

Or is this something we tell ourselves to make sense of things and make ourselves feel better? I like to think everything happens for a reason but I do wonder sometimes if life is just completely random.

yes.








but i think sometimes that reason is because people are assholes and do stupid ****.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I think so. What will be will be.

livedadream

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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not **** stirring but like seriously?

did they teach you anything in school?

eve ate and apple, the world went to hell in a handbasket...

fukced the rest of us...

#originalsin

Fred Swanson

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livedadream

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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but you knew the answer to the question.

buying it or not doesnt matter, you asked a question...

If God existed why does he allow famines and pestilence?

because Eve was hungry ate and apple and invented original sin.

i didnt say it was true or even real, i just answered the question you asked.

The Backwards Man

A native American came to me in a dream one night and explained the whole mystery of life and the universe to me. He said,

'It is what it is'

Sam Kade

livedadream wrote: »

but you knew the answer to the question.

buying it or not doesnt matter, you asked a question...



because Eve was hungry ate and apple and invented original sin.

i didnt say it was true or even real, i just answered the question you asked.

Very good, if only uncle Gaybo had that answer for old twisty nose the outcome would have been so much different.

livedadream

Sam Kade wrote: »

Very good, if only uncle Gaybo had that answer for old twisty nose the outcome would have been so much different.

twisty nose?

huh?

Your Face

Yes and no.

Sam Kade

livedadream wrote: »

twisty nose?

huh?

Two Gay men

Elliott S

Melisandre121 wrote: »

Or is this something we tell ourselves to make sense of things and make ourselves feel better? I like to think everything happens for a reason but I do wonder sometimes if life is just completely random.

Nope.

I'm not perfect, I've made tonnes of mistakes in life, but I did nothing to deserve advanced cancer. Nothing.

I understand that it's comforting to people to try and think of reasons why shítty things happen, but I think that's a form of self-flagellation.

I'm an adherent of chaos theory.

livedadream

Sam Kade wrote: »

Two Gay men

im so confused?!?!?! will someone PM what this is about if its one of those potentailly slander type things...

i am literally lost.

diomed

Do things happen to you for a reason? No.
There are billions of people, and other things like weather affecting the situation. Some will affect you positively, some negatively, in your opinion.

No. I think events in the universe unfold pointlessly and blindly. And unpredictably (over the long run and in total detail) from the point of view of both machines and humans, both in theory and practise. And that they are not preordained by some higher entity with specific concern for events involving human beings. Whether events unfold deterministically or not (ie. Whether what ends up happening is the only thing that was possible to happen) is up for debate but I believe things are ultimately deterministic with indeterminism just being what is perceived when the act of extracting information from a system, to ascertain it's state, upsets the system and makes it unpredictable.

And whether events involving you are perceived by you to be good or bad, it is "nothing personal" as far as the universe is "concerned" - good stuff and s'hit "just" happens. That events involving humans should be special from the universes' "perspective" is an absurd notion when you think about it - like at what stage in our ancestors history did that start to be the case, that stuff involving living beings on this one planet ever "happens for a reason". Was the outcome of a specific bacteriums life 2.53 billion years ago also preordained to unfold the way it did "for some reason"? What about events relating to an aborted fetuses life? Etc.