Do you believe in fate?

[SwimModSponges]

For the majority of my life, I was of the opinion that "fate" was incongruous with the idea of a world populated by conscious beings with free will.

 

The more I've thought about it however, the more I've come to realize that free will is merely an illusion and reality truly is preordained.

 

Everything; from the stars in the night sky to the trees, the air in your lungs, hormones in your endocrine system, thoughts within your mind, all of it is chemicals reacting with other chemicals. The thing about all these chemical reactions is that the occur with certitude: that is to say, when the appropriate conditions are met the reaction is certain to occur. And occur they do; a singular constant chemical chain reaction beginning at the dawn of time and stretching out into eternity as the universe expands. And we're all just along for the ride.

 

Now, I know what you're thinking- "Fuck that noise, I got me some free will, bitch." Also you're grabbing your crotch while you think that. Not in a creepy way, just like "yeah, deez nuts and whatnot."

 

Anyways, I'm all like "No, I really don't think you do. Look, we exist in a universe which contains a lot of dimensions. I think they're saying it's upwards of 10, but we don't need to talk about all of them right now, just the first handful. Let's start with the first three, they're the ones we know most intimately. A line has length- a singular dimension. A plane has length and width (please resist the urge to grab your crotch as you think about what else has width. yo mama.). Three dimensional reality consists of length, width and depth. It's the one your most used to seeing. Then of course, there's the fourth dimension, the one in which we travel uncontrollably forwards as time progresses inexorably. Think about an event far back into your past. Was that event based in a physical reality consisting of constant chemical reactions? Think about an event in your future. Do you think that this event will occur in a physical reality consisting of constant chemical reactions? The answer is yes; the chemicals which make up yourself are in both instances simply pieces of the larger chemical reaction as it moves through the fourth dimension."

 

"Well what about the fifth dimension?" you ask. "Yeah, ok, cool. Choice exists within five dimensional existence, but I'm willing to bet you don't know how to jump from the timeline of your universe onto another.

 

I do.

 

 

Read my fanfictions

 

 

[Cau]

I believe in farts

[SwimModSponges]

BAR HAR HAR

[Distortedreasoning]

i am uncertain.

[wacky1980]

i'm not destined to live an exact, predetermined fate. i'm destined to live EVERY exact, predetermined fate. so sayeth your 10d theory, but i think it only takes 6 dimensions.

[rilkean_heart]

I believe in fairies

[rpgamer]

Most people grow out of these "epiphanies" by your age.

[SnapItCrackItPopIt]

Yeah, if it benefits me.

[NaBarney]

[bnmjy]

And then there's quantum theory and the inability to accurately predict the position of electrons. Determinism is bullshit.

[Mini_ghost420]

somewhere, the future is already written just as the past is

[fuggnificent]

You said this boring ass shit before.

[Naraku4656]

i believe in Fate Zero

[SwimModSponges]

i'm not destined to live an exact, predetermined fate. i'm destined to live EVERY exact, predetermined fate. so sayeth your 10d theory, but i think it only takes 6 dimensions.

 

A version of you is destined to live every fate. Raise your right hand. Did you raise your left leg? Then you aren't the version of you that raised your left leg. Theres nothing you can do to change it. The future is as solid as the past.

[SwimModSponges]

And then there's quantum theory and the inability to accurately predict the position of electrons. Determinism is bullshit.

 

Quantum theory covers dimensions higher than five, and theres only one electron, it travels to all places in a way that appears ro us as simultaniously.

[SwimModSponges]

You said this boring ass shit before.

 

And i will say it again, forever and ever.

[death_by_motorboat]

We are all certain that within our frame of existence we don't understand all the possibilities in our lives.  That itself has proof that we do not have a hundred percent free will.  If we chose to do whatever we want we would always be right and if we chose to do what we wanted to do we would always be free.  This reality offers neither of those possibilities; we're neither always right nor always free.  Reality being set in stone and only allowing so many possibilities to exist is as free as our wills can achieve.  There are predefined boundaries in what we able to possiblly complete.  This subject brings me to crime statistics; how many criminals intended to commit the crimes they did knowing they would be imprisoned for years?  Notwithstanding other Universal events such as probability, inability to change your environment, or psychological / behavioral norms, all of which are not free choices.  What I'm saying is all free choices are still drawn towards one Ultimate.

 

However self-serving it sounds, if all of our choices are drawn to one ultimate, that would be our fate.

[SwimModSponges]

Criminals are just strings of chemicals reacting with the strings of chemicals which make up wverything else. So are police, so are the lights making up the letters as i type rhis on my phone, so is the voice in your head as you read my post.

 

Its all a singular reaction.

[death_by_motorboat]

Singular ....an entity of core-self that has a predetermined existence....

 

This is so depressing

[SwimModSponges]

No, its beautiful.

 

There is only the illusion of choice, but illusions can be fun. Take what you know and run with it. The swirling masses of atoms have currently congealed into this exact moment.

 

Behold your creation.

 

 

[SwimModSponges]

Even without choice, the fractal of reality is the ultimate inspiration.

 

Bask in the reality of everything.

[Still Me]

along with tl;dr....no....I don't believe in fate

[wacky1980]

A version of you is destined to live every fate. Raise your right hand. Did you raise your left leg? Then you aren't the version of you that raised your left leg. Theres nothing you can do to change it. The future is as solid as the past.

no, not a version of me. they are all me. i am all of them. and i am constantly destroying pieces of this whole, in an attempt to become the one.

[nameraka]

the more you've come to believe that free will is an illusion...

 

based on what?

 

|::

[SwimModSponges]

Chemical predetermination and the reality that is extradimensional existance.

[scoobdog]

We spend our entire lives vacillating between a wide open future and a perfectly safe, pre-planned future.  As much is made about the debate between fate and free-will, the reality is that fate is typically little more than a projection of safety.  We as individuals have little capacity to entertain every conceivable possibility in an indeterminate future and the inherent risks that doing so entails.  As we grow into adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it, we inherently crave a stability that comes with such a price.

[PenguinBoss]

I don't subscribe to the belief that since I can only choose one option, that there's only one option to choose.

[Chapinator_X]

It's something that fascinates me because in my mind, I can only imagine the thousands of scenarios that would happen if I made one choice over another. I hold the idea that even though fate doesn't change, the future can't be visibly destined in the present. We can't see what's in front of us, or what path we take because there are always shortcuts and paths along the way that we decide to take either as a detour or for convenience that may change the future.

 

You might say the bricks are set for a path as a professor, but obstacles, mishaps, and experiences along the way might steer you towards journalism. You might've been fated to be a journalist, but it wasn't your initial motivation or destiny to be a journalist when you had different ideas in mind as far as what your fate would be. In a crasser example, if fate aligned with what we thought was our path, then we would've had Hitler the Painter instead of Hitler the Dictator.

 

People will only know what's fated after-the-fact, but repeating the mantra in your mind "this is fate" or "this is destiny" is trying to solidify a self-fulfilling prophecy when nothings 100% certain until you've lived through it.

[Sieg67]

You said this boring ass shit before.

 

Maybe he should talk about some military hotties.

That'd be interesting.

[SwimModSponges]

I have to disagree, on the grounds that your argument is based largely on the subjective experience of existance. You're not "fated" to do something because someone decided you should do football instead of hockey,but throughout the course of our existance we travel along one singular timeline; a cascade of causes and effects which has led us to this very moment.

 

We can say "oh, fate told me to take basketball but i did volleyball instead" but the fact of the matter is you did what you goddamn did for reasons. Those reasons were, once again, chemical reactions both within and without if yourself.

 

The future is not clear to us becuase we are unable to truly observe the fourth dimension. If we were able to see the path of time as clearly as a stretch of road, however, we would see the solidity of all events, past present and future.

[Hornshire]

We believe in autonomy. We believe We believe this because We choose to believe this. We believe We believe in choice because We believe that a society comprised entirely of actors that operate under the premise that choice does not exist (whether or not it actually does is largely irrelevant) is unsustainable. Accountability is a necessity, destiny a subversion.

 

Your assessment of the universe seems to be one made up of only dominoes, and no butterflies. You dismiss further dimensions out of hand because you cannot perceive them, and thus neither can you perceive the ways in which you traverse them. But traverse them you do, regardless. As do the subatomic particles that govern your chemistry in a manner that not even the best and brightest among us can begin to be certain of, let alone comprehend. And though the exact nature of  the tangling between these maneuvers and their effects in the observable universe are unseen, the effects themselves do happen in the observable universe, and are as the name implies observable.

 

Our belief, therefore, is that We are a beautiful, quarky, autonomous butterfly. 

[NaBarney]

becuase

[Doom Metal Alchemist]

because chemical reactions

 

^fixed Nabloom[/member]

[NaBarney]

Is not

 

 

The future is not clear to us becuase we are unable to truly observe the fourth dimension.

[SwimModSponges]

If one had the ability, the future would be solid instead of ephemeral.

 

The fact that the human mind is not up to the task does not negate the fact that the particles which make up everything are quantifiable. There is an exact number of carbon molecules in existance, the fact that you personally can't conceive of that number does not negate its existance.

[Still Me]

i believe in life after divorce  :D

[Chapinator_X]

There is linearity in the path we follow at the end of the day, but we don't have to foresight as to where that route takes us because nothing is predetermined as we know it.

 

I would use writing a book as an analogy. The entire book isn't done when you first pick up the pen or start planning. You might have an outline or a predetermined resolution, but how you get from page 1 to page 200 might not be as it was written in the outline. The book might not even be finished to its fullest. You could say the book is finished to completion as soon as the writer stops, but there are outcomes where the writer is able to reach a different finish line. There isn't enough foresight to foretell what someone's fate is, and once they reach the point where they know everything that has happened in their life, it won't mean anything to them other than as a historical record for their loved ones to carry on or remember.

 

There are too many routes of doing anything throughout ones life to disregard seeing life as more of a grid than a line. There's still one eventual path, but it only emerges from the zig zags and L shapes that our lives take as we make one decision over another. I had my phone stolen and gave chase to the thief a while back. I was safe, but what if I took a different path to get to my car to avoid getting stopped by the would-be thief? What if the thief pulled out a gun, and in my foolishness, I charged into a bullet? Wouldn't my life up to this point be completely different or gone without the experience I had within this timeframe? Would it disqualify the experiences I've had up to this point as something of an alternate reality that never happened? Would I have met the people I've met?

[God-Says-No]

I dont believe in fate

[StarPanda]

Soomtimes I do sometime I don't

[SwimModSponges]

There is linearity in the path we follow at the end of the day, but we don't have to foresight as to where that route takes us because nothing is predetermined as we know it.

Qualifier- as we know it.

I would use writing a book as an analogy. The entire book isn't done when you first pick up the pen or start planning. You might have an outline or a predetermined resolution, but how you get from page 1 to page 200 might not be as it was written in the outline. The book might not even be finished to its fullest. You could say the book is finished to completion as soon as the writer stops, but there are outcomes where the writer is able to reach a different finish line. There isn't enough foresight to foretell what someone's fate is, and once they reach the point where they know everything that has happened in their life, it won't mean anything to them other than as a historical record for their loved ones to carry on or remember.

the writer in your example has near total control over their creation. This is not the case in reality. You did not chose the situation into which you were born, you did not chose the time period,  you did not chose the location, you did not chose the species, you did not chose the genes which make you. You can claim to chose only your responses to the situations in which you find yourself, and i would argue that that choice is in and of itself an illusion because as previosuly stated that choice comes about as a series of chemical reactions both within and without the assemblage of molecules designates as "you" and the "environment." When you read a book,the ending exists no matter if you're on page 1 of 300. You may think this character is going to switch sides, or be destined to be the hero, you may assume the book will end on a cliffhanger etc. But in the end, its all there,

Solid on the page.

There are too many routes of doing anything throughout ones life to disregard seeing life as more of a grid than a line. There's still one eventual path, but it only emerges from the zig zags and L shapes that our lives take as we make one decision over another. Those zig zags and L shapes appear three-dimensionally. Four dimensionally there is a line.I had my phone stolen and gave chase to the thief a while back. I was safe, but what if I took a different path to get to my car to avoid getting stopped by the would-be thief? What if the thief pulled out a gun, and in my foolishness, I charged into a bullet? Wouldn't my life up to this point be completely different or gone without the experience I had within this timeframe? Would it disqualify the experiences I've had up to this point as something of an alternate reality that never happened? Would I have met the people I've met? Yes, had your life been on a different time line it would have been different. But you're not on a different time line. You're on the same time line as you have always been and always will be.

[SwimModSponges]

*a bit of a modification to the previous post: four dimensionally its a line, but not one we 3 dimensional beings would easily recognize as a line. Its kind of all wrapped around and knotty because we're traveling 3 dimensionally along a surface that spins incredibly fast not only around the sun but also around the center of the galaxy, etc. Not to mention we're also being flung outwards as the universe expands.

 

We're really like, noodley and stuff.