Fate and Destiny are Fantasies

There's a guy on one of the trail videos I
follow that is totally into fate and destiny.
Which are pretty much the same thing.

If he needs a new pair of hiking shoes
and a pair of nice ones show up in a hiker
box the next day, that's fate to him. (a hiker
box is where people abandon things they
carry because of the weight) Those shoes
were put there, he thinks, by the universe
specifically for him.

He always saying he's 'right where he's
supposed to be' at all times. Like there
is a plan out there just for him. 'The trail
will provide' is his motto.

When I started thinking about it, lots of
people are like this. Of course all the god
people already believe god has some silly
plan just for their narcissistic selves. Buts
lots of non god, level headed people think
the universe is looking out for them.

They reverse engineer what happens to
them and put it back together like it's
a huge puzzle. I met my wife, they say,
because I was supposed to. If I wait and
am patient, life will present just what I
need at just the right time.

That's not how it works. Our life is a morass
of decisions we make, and spontaneous
happenings and random events out of
our control, that we call luck. When you
look back on your life, that's what you're
seeing, not you careening around in some
plan the universe has laid out for you.

You're creating your own reality and making
you own luck, and hopefully taking advantage
of the good things and enduring the pitfalls,
because there is no god looking out for you,
and the universe doesn't give one damn about
you. If there's a plan, you make it you live it.

see the works of Isak Denisen for treatment of fate and destiny.

And recall the man who borrowed a fast horse from his master so he could ride to Asmara after Death gave him a sign in the marketplace,
the master also met Death in the marketplace who told him he had not given a sign, he was startled for he had an appointment with the servant that night in Asmara.

The fate and destiny people are funny. It's only
fate if it's something good that's happening.
They're only where they're 'supposed to be'
if it's a place they want to be.

God people are the same way. They get that
raise, or promotion, or catch all the lights
green on the way to work, it's thank you
lord, thank you Jesus. But if something
happens they don't like, they get fired,
the spouse leaves, a teen daughter gets
preggo, is it thank you Jesus then?

Noooo, they don't mention god at all.
Why aren't they thanking him profusely,
surely he's responsible for all the bad
things if he's responsible for the good
things. He must know better than them,
he's a god.

People generally are very bad at thinking
these things through. Obviously all this
occurs under the 'shit happens' law, god
has nothing to do with any of it.

Quote: Evenbob

The fate and destiny people are funny. It's only
fate if it's something good that's happening.
They're only where they're 'supposed to be'
if it's a place they want to be.

God people are the same way. They get that
raise, or promotion, or catch all the lights
green on the way to work, it's thank you
lord, thank you Jesus. But if something
happens they don't like, they get fired,
the spouse leaves, a teen daughter gets
preggo, is it thank you Jesus then?

Noooo, they don't mention god at all.
Why aren't they thanking him profusely,
surely he's responsible for all the bad
things if he's responsible for the good
things. He must know better than them,
he's a god.

People generally are very bad at thinking
these things through. Obviously all this
occurs under the 'shit happens' law, god
has nothing to do with any of it.

Westboro baptist church rejoices in people getting their comeupance from God. They are consistent in their beliefs

Quote: Evenbob

Noooo, they don't mention god at all.
Why aren't they thanking him profusely,
surely he's responsible for all the bad
things if he's responsible for the good
things. He must know better than them,
he's a god.

Cracks me up every time I see some bible-thumper interviewed on the news after a natural disaster like a hurricane or the California wildfires this past fall; "I thank the lord my family's safe!" they always say. Ha! The "lord" just wiped out your whole town, killed your neighbors and you lost your job, and you're thanking him? Like he wanted you to live through it all? What a dope.

Quote: zippyboy

Cracks me up every time I see some bible-thumper interviewed on the news after a natural disaster like a hurricane or the California wildfires this past fall; "I thank the lord my family's safe!" they always say. Ha! The "lord" just wiped out your whole town, killed your neighbors and you lost your job, and you're thanking him? Like he wanted you to live through it all? What a dope.

They only think about god when good
things happen, like they're saved from a
natural disaster. Their tiny brains are not
capable of carrying that thought to the
natural conclusion that their god saved
them, yet wiped out all their neighbors.

I've seen this phenom up close and in
person, it's a kind of mental illness. Called
denial and living in a fantasy world.

Quote: zippyboy

Cracks me up every time I see some bible-thumper interviewed on the news after a natural disaster like a hurricane or the California wildfires this past fall; "I thank the lord my family's safe!" they always say. Ha! The "lord" just wiped out your whole town, killed your neighbors and you lost your job, and you're thanking him? Like he wanted you to live through it all? What a dope.

This phenomenon does not make me laugh but cry at the ignorance and lack of compassion those who believe in God sometimes posses. As you point out it sounds very dopey and certainly not well thought out.

Speaking of that I wonder why Evenbob in the original posts to this thread didn't mention these types of things, instead he writes:

Quote: Evenbob

God people are the same way. They get that
raise, or promotion, or catch all the lights
green on the way to work, it's thank you
lord, thank you Jesus. But if something
happens they don't like, they get fired,
the spouse leaves, a teen daughter gets
preggo, is it thank you Jesus then?

Here we have some pretty simple examples, as oppossed to natural disasters, as to why people thank God or don't. God usually is to blame for the inspiration to work hard at your job to get the promotion. God is usually not to blame for a teenager getting pregnant out of wedlock, in fact this means God's commands were explicitly broken.

I'm sorry that Bob has retreated from the discussion because it was earlier pointed out he was wrong about historical facts. I would also be interested in how he squares his motto, "create your own reality" with the idea that everything is just random chance and meaningless. Does he mean that by the force of his will he can stop the randomness of life and win at things like roulette? Does he mean that everything still is meaningless but it gives him comfort to say he has created his own meaning for something even though he hasn't really? I'm curious.

As God, a/k/a Sheldon, said: I do not take sides in sporting events, except to change the line in Vegas.