What if fate if conditional, not absolute?

What if fate if conditional, not absolute?

What is down to fate and what is down to the decisions we make?

It maybe that we are pre-programmed to a certain life (fate) but the following of that path is conditional on decisions we make at critical places along that path.

If we choose to turn left when fate wants us to turn right, if we say yes and fate wants us to say no, if we refuse to do harm when fate wants us to. These all affect the rest of life, fate or no fate.

May be the preconditioning allows for some deviation from the path or maybe we have to write our own completely new map. Find our own path.

Some people follow a religious belief that implies that all is pre-ordained, many people consider that fate, luck, and the future, are beyond their control. Others believe the exact opposite, thinking that everything is the consequence of all the previous actions that we are responsible for, and so have nothing to do with a pre-set plan.

What is self-evident is that in modern life, we are all so interconnected that events and actions by others, that we have absolutely no control over, or responsibility for, can affect our future life. For example, an election held in a nation thousands of miles away, can result in a change of government there and this results in policy change that ends up with an all-engulfing war. Or in another nation there is a violent revolution that changes that nations relationship with the rest of the world, resulting in economic changes that affect us as individuals. An election in our own country where the majority vote for a party we do not support, means a change to our future material wellbeing. These things impose change on us as individuals, despite any action we may take to prevent such a change. Is this fate? Or is it the result of actions other people have taken?

The universe, at least the physical part we know about, appears to be governed by a set of rules, we may not fully understand these rules, but science tells us that such things as the speed of light, are constant throughout this known universe. Those who believe in a divine force that governs all and everything, believe that these rules that control the physical world, were designed and implemented by God, this divine entity and as such the rules are perfect by definition. If this is the case then there can be no deviation from those rules, even God cannot change them, since to do so would be acknowledgement that they can be improved, that they are not perfect, yet that perfection is established because God made the rules. If this is true, then Prayers that are asking for a change or temporary suspension of a rule, are futile.

Something started creation, even science advocating the “Big Bang” theory of the origins of the known universe, must acknowledge that something must have existed before that instant when it all erupted. Something that triggered that big bang. If it is claimed that the big bang was caused by the physics of compression and expansion, then something existed to be compressed and something triggered that expansion. If we call that something God, we have to ask if God has any control over the resulting explosion. Does God control the universe? Or did God set rules (such as speed of light) and then triggered the explosion, just to see what happens? May be God has no interest, other than curiosity about the results of the experimental start of creation. This brings us back to the questions about fate.

We humans may think we are important, but we have to face the fact that compared to the whole of the known universe, even our Galaxy is just one of millions and so our solar system and our planet are relatively, incredibly small. Planet earth compared to the universe is less than a grain of sand in the Sharah and so we as a race, let alone as individual members of the human race, probably do not matter very much. Most religions, those that impose a human hierarchy of control over other humans, claim that God favours them because of their way of worshiping God. The truth of these claims may never be established. If you believe in Gaia as an ethereal or spiritual entity, then humans will be much more important to Gaia than to God. Also, it is possible that Gaia is not pleased with the way humans behave, while God is indifferent.

Many people use the notion of fate, a predestined path, as an excuse for bad decision making. Certainly, if we jump off the top of a thousand-meter-tall building the resulting collision with the ground has very little to do with fate and a great deal to do with the decision to jump. If we are in a situation, such as driving a car at speed in amongst other vehicles, then what happens to us will be the result of a great number of decisions and reactions being made both by ourselves and other drivers. Again, fate has very little to do with this. The proposition that fate is conditional, suggests that fate exists in the first place. Conditions that modify fate, depend on fate existing, otherwise it cannot be altered.

Luck and fate are integral to each other. Winning the lottery is conditional on entering the draw, buying a ticket. Without that decision the luck of winning cannot be manifest. So, fate is conditional on the decision to buy the ticket. But, buying the ticket is conditional on having the money to pay for it, and it is conditional on finding a place selling the tickets. If “fate” determines the winning numbers, then the amount to be won, and who wins it, are conditional on how many people buy tickets. So may be fate does exist but only in a vague overall way, a setting of generalised ambience, and all the details are down to our decisions.