Fate, or destiny, whatever Options

Hey all!

I was just wondering how of you believe in fate, meaning that your lifes course is already written for you?

and if you believe in such a thing, can your fate be changed somehow? can you neglect your fate or our you controlled by forces outside your control?

My personal view (at the moment, it will probably change after this discussion) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bigwink.gif) is that people have certain things they are good at and certain things they are not, but I do not actually believe in fate at this time as don't like the idea of not being in control. I guess whether your LHP or RHP has a lot to do with it.

Discuss (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

"I think time is flat, but goes in all directions."

Neato concept. I assume you mean each action creates a new timestream and there are trillions upon trillions of simultaneous timestreams? I believe that could be true, but each of those trillions upon trillions of timestreams would still be circular (that is to say, there's no beginning, no end, the future has already happened -- we're just not aware of it -- and the past will happen again -- not to mention it's all an illusion anyway.)

Fun.

some food for thought (i did not write this paragraph!):


ABSTRACT: Normally, activity is regarded as discernible, but according to relativity theory whatever is discernible lies in the past of the discernible. Only the present subjective immediacy is properly active. Subjectivity is properly understood as present becoming; objectivity as past being (so Whitehead). I propose that we extend the domain of subjective immediacy to include the future as well as the present. This future universal activity is pluralized in the present in terms of the many actualities coming into being. Subjectivity is the individualization of becoming, and so can apply to the future as a whole as well as to particular present subjects. The future as divine grows out of Whitehead's revisions of traditional notions of omnipotence and omniscience. But he separates creativity (best understood in terms of Hindu and Buddhist thought) from the God of Western theism. This separation can be overcome if God is future creativity individualized in its own realm, which is the source of the creativity within each of us.


if you werent confused before... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/banana.gif) was it just me, or did you have problems discerning this? lol.

I love this concept. I had this notion when i was a little younger, but now all i can do is argue against it (seeming as how its so popular, and because its virtually impossible to argue against it, I find that its necessary to take the opposing side...dammit i support democracy!). To highlight the main idea: past is past, and all that is happening is a future being acted out. Note "A future". There are many futures. Now this might fit comfortably with the "circular" jargon except that past in that particular scenario would be set in stone and the "circular" theory destroys any notion of a specific unaltered past. In the circular idea there is a sense of "never mind...it never happened" which is rather an active idea, dont you think? lol My argument is that the past CAN and is Altered. Such that fate in the "linear" sense is nonexistant (at least in my world, lol)

Now what does this have to do with Fate? Well there is mention of universal activity. At one point each individual is 'fated' to meet actively with the future creativity(what i call the source). This is ideal...if you like to be one tiny fragment of the universe. Those who might fight the current (he he) and proclaim their individuality (hurrah!) could take comfort in the fact that they have their own universe at their disposal (the joys of individual consciousness). Whether we are all fated to return to the source, to start back where we began, to construct our own cosmos (with magic, the imagination, or otherwise) or to ignore it all and just live our merry lives...that is where Fate meets Oppurtunity and bends to the will.

so how bout prophecy? I'd be arrogant and rather stupid to discount such power...but how does prophecy play a role in the whole fate thing? anyone? Ideas?