RE: Aaron (Tigers) On Fate

I agree that some things happen for a reason, but I also believe in cause and effect. Not everything is the result of a higher power. As for fate, I believe in fate for certain things, but not everything, otherwise we would be completely powerless. Like puppets, controlled and jerked around, dancing to someone's tune. I don't like the idea that I have no control over anything in my life, so I choose not to believe it. If the choices we face everyday mean nothing, then why do we care so much? If they mean nothing, then everything that happens is inevitable. We couldn't have stopped or changed anything; then why do we regret? And why do we wonder "what if?" There is really no point as long as fate surrounds us, an all-encompassing power. Our life, our existence, our decisions and choices, our faith and religion; they have no meaning, no significance. Therefore, I choose to believe that things don't happen because of fate alone, that we do have a say in some things. That's not to say that I've completely written fate off my copious list of things I'm inclined to believe in. I haven't. Sometimes I feel fate is responsible for certain things, just not everything. I suppose if I were a devoted full-time advocate of fate, I'd say that it shapes the fundamental structure of the way things could be. I don't believe that fate means there is one set path that the entire universe is, inevitably, forced to take. I think there are many roads that one could take, depending on their actions and choices.

Addressing Aaron's statement that he uses "the fact that fate exists to get [him] through hardships," I'd like to say that my way of overcoming hardships is quite divergent. This is probably because I don't fully believe in fate, or anything else for that matter. If I went with Aaron's way of conduct, I'd probably be broken and fragile still because I wouldn't have fought back. With his thinking, I'd have accepted anything that happened to me without question, attributing it only to my mere belief in fate. I wouldn't have tried to figure out the root of the problem, maybe missing the entire lesson I was supposed to have learned from the whole ordeal. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that his belief is bad; just that we are different people, with different mannerisms and beliefs, and his approach would never have worked for me. Usually, if I'm in the right state of mind, I tend to analyze my situation. I go over my options of actions and consequences, weighing the two. That and I repeat the mantra, "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger," like a prayer in my head.