Is fate something that just happens to you or can fate knock on your door, leaving you with a decision to make? Please tell stories of what fate means to you.

Lost Sailor,

I've always believed in sort of a human fate or destiny, meanin' that I believe there is some sort of basic outline for humanity as a whole. Now, the thing is I think individuals have free will to affect that destiny. We make choices and do things that add detail to the portrait bein' painted. Our choices can either postpone destiny for a while or bring us to it at "warp speed".

Now, here's where things get a little complicated. Above I said humanity as a whole has a fate or destiny and that humans have free will to paint the details of that destiny. There's more to it, though, in my opinion. Individual humans are also broadly fated to do things while maintainin' their free will.

Look at it this way: John Smith is born on this Earth to become a farmer somewhere in central Georgia. There is absolutely nothin' that can change that. He's also fated to marry Mary Lou Harris from Alabama and be a parent. However, he chooses the details of his life. Does he graduate high school and go directly into farmin'? - does he graduate high school at all or does he get his GED? - or does he go to college to learn business and more about agriculture? That's his choice. Is he a good husband or a bad husband? A good parent or a bad parent? Those are his choices -- and they impact the fates of his wife, children, friends and family by his acts of free will and they his. Paul S. Kemp, in his fantasy novel Twilight Falling, wrote it far more eloquently than I:

"Fate delineated boundaries; choice established details."

I do but I also believe in free will. I just wrote a paper on fatalism for my philosophy class. I believe we have a time do die, be born etc, but I do believe we have free will when it comes to how much happiness we derive from our lives. Like what our professions will be, who we marry, etc. I like to think that there is a higher power guiding our lives and we aren't just subject to chance.

This is something I have questioned for a long time now. I want to believe in fate because it would be really upsetting to know that all the truly terrible stuff that happens in the world, happens for absolutely no reason at all. I would like to believe that there is higher purpose for all even if it is hard to realize in the moment.

But I also believe in choice. We have the ability to choose our direction in life, but when we look closer and really follow the subtle signs in life, there is path for us to follow and it is not meaningless. So yes, we have the ability to make decisions in life, but it is for a higher purpose and that is not always recognizable.

I've recently been struggling with this "fate" question even more so than usual because I made the decision to move back home to the mainland after living in Hawai'i for two years (I know, I'm crazy, I moved away from there). It was probably the happiest I've ever been while living and going to school there. I met some really great people and I moved away (telling myself that I would eventually go back) anyway. I never really had a good reason for moving away, other than I was done with school and didn't know what to do next.

So I moved back home where it is friggin cold! And I struggled for about 5 months. And then out of nowhere, I got an amazing job opportunity and I have the most awesome boss. I've never felt like I was meant to meet someone, but I feel like I was meant to meet her. It is a really bizarre feeling. On top of that, I am seeing this different doctor and if things turn out and optimistically as he thinks, I may be "well" for the first time in six years.

And this is all after leaving the most gorgeous place on the planet without a good reason and feeling like I was alienating myself from the good people I met there.

Sorry to get so personal. :redface: But if this is all turns out as well as it has started, I may officially be a believer in fate. And then hopefully move back to Hawai'i. ;)

It's kind of hard for me to determine whether I believe in fate or not. I find it hard to believe that everything is planned out for you and you don't have a say in it and you can't control it. So I always lean the other way toward making your own destiny. You control what choices you make and how your life turns out.

But how do you know if it really is fate? Which choice is the right one? Your head or your heart? Or do we just want to believe it's fate?

Just wanna say i Believe in fate. I think every thing happens for a reason. I am not religous but i do believe there is some higher purpose, or higher cause. My god this is so deep! :). But i do have to say that believing in fate can cross the line-you have to have common sense

I wouldn't believe in fate, but the coincidences that happen in life are incredible and I cannot deny them.

I wouldn't believe in fate, but the coincidences that happen in life are incredible and I cannot deny them.

ya thats true. Like in lost htey seem so ridiculous, but you realise that these things really do happen all the time! Like the connections they have

i believe things happen for a reason, there is fate, but one can also controle ones own fate.

I think there are a lot of times when you can look back at something, even something bad, and say, "well if this and that hadn't happened I wouldn't be where I am now. This great thing wouldn't have happened if these bad things hadn't happened and directed me to this decision."
I see that all the time. However, I don't know that I believe its predetermined.
Theres always choice. Granted, it may be that no matter what choice you make will eventually lead you to the same outcome. Some choices get you there faster.

I have a hard time with the idea that everything we become is already planned for us.
I am the person I am because of decisions that I made, no one else made them for me.

So I'm not really sure. I do see examples of things happening for a reason but I don't think that I believe its destined from conception. I know, it doesn't seem to make sense!
:rolleyes:

i believe in fate as in were all going to die as its fate, but not its fate that we were brought to this deserted island and now a cloud of black smoke is after me aswell as the polar-bears and oh em gee there are people here who kidnap our kids, well... its fate...

Everything is determined by choice. You make the decisions in your life no matter how small, or how big they are. If you strongly feel to go left, you go left. It's really how you feel inside. Go with your gut instincts, or your heart.

Fate, I believe are the signs we see along the way. When things are going smoothly, when things are going the way you want it to go, than you know you've been making good decisions. Or it could be the opposite, when things are going bad, when things are not going as planned (you take that as a sign), than you know you made wrong decisions.

FATE is based upon the decisions we make in life. (like what the other posters were saying) By free-will. FATE doesn't control you and your life. You control your own destiny. As being a believer in God, he helps guide you down the path you decide to take.

Another example: When a child gets kidnapped, it happens.. because we weren't watching the child, and didn't notice that someone was stalking the child.. we don't know when they happen, they just happen. They happen for a reason. We should have been more aware and alert with our surroundings. That was the decision we chose to make.