...ventures through life

Strange that you post this... its been on my mind lately...

I don't think that every little detail is mapped out, but I very strongly believe that the bigger picture is out of our control.  Coming from a religious background, I believe that I'm not the one in control and God is pointing me in the direction that I need to be going (probably the most religious thing most of you have heard me say).  Too many strange things (good and bad) happen in my life for me to be totally in control.  

For one example, I believe that everyone that I have met in life and that has had some sort of meaning to me (good or bad) was put there for a reason.   To teach me something, show me something, make me appreciate something, lead me in a particular direction....  

I believe that everything happens for a reason regardless of how good, bad, or unjustly fair it seems at the time.

Sorry for the long comment, but I have been thinking lots about this lately... Kind of in that stage of life where I'm looking at this stuff a lot.... getting married, becoming an aunt in the near future, trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing...  For me, I find comfort in knowing that my life will lead me where I need to go.  Sometimes it is the only thing that keeps me going... and as my mother always reminds me when times are rough, God will never give you more than you can handle.  

maybe the "reason" i wrote that post was so that you could get a little weight off your shoulders, marie:)

its so overwhelming - one life - one chance to make the decisions that will guide your life ... i guess i put more emphasis on my decisions or my options - seems like there's always crossroads and i have to decide which to take. i was raised "you make your own bed and you have to sleep in it" ... and my mother would always say that god gave us brains and knowledge and strength so that we can make our own decisions, which i agree to.

i guess i can be a little "controlling," (more to myself than controlling others) but i don't really like the idea that a higher power has everything layed out for me already - what's the challenge in that? or the fun:)

at the same time - there are many things that feel like fate, the people i meet, the coincidences that occur - which could be as simple as "being in the right place at the right time." many of these instances also just seem dependent on other people, other's decisions can effect my life ... which may be out of my control. but still so many instances seem coincidental and beyond control of any man and maybe even any god.

without getting too much into religious beliefs, i do feel that something/someone higher than me is "up" there giving me strength when i need & open up to it and pointing out what to be aware of that will help me make my decisions.

wish i could just have it all figured out, right? but again, what's the fun in that:)  

I think I could have a doctorate in any other subject if I'd spent as much time on it as I have this question.

On one hand, In a closed system you should be able to predict exactly what happens at any given moment. Chaos theory pretty much threw that out the window, and I still like the explanation for chaos given in "Jurassic park" best.

It's hard to make an argument for being able to control your own destiny because how do you know you weren't fated to have that thought at that exact moment.

hm... religion. If god is omnipotent, then he knows what you're going to do before you do it. That seems to support fate, but also makes god seem like a ***. He took the time to create me, already knowing that he'd have to send me to hell. The bible also claims that humans have free will. which doesn't seem to fit very well if god already knows what's going to happen. giant contradiction.

years of expounding on these ideas of lead me to the following conclusion. The meaning of life, the universe, and everything is 42.

nick

"First ya born, then ya die, the bit in the middle is called life and thats still to come" - Lister from the TV series "Red Dwarf"

Fastanating question.  I wish I could sit around with you and have some brownies and discuss it all.

I can give you the biblical answer to this very deep question, or at least I can as best as I can try to...

Our small group Bible study has been discussing this for the past month or so.  It is funny how this topic keeps coming up in our lives.  The long and the short of it are yes to both, and if you are looking for biblical support for both our own free will and God's sovergn will.  It is written in the Bible in many places that God will not violate man's free will, but rather tells us very clearly what to choose in moral delimas.  Yet it also says that God is in complete control of everything that has ever exsited but not only that goes farther to say that he has already acomplished everything so therefore to paraphrase is not really sweating the present because He has already acomplished it.  

So without going too far into it...the answer to your question is...yes.  We make our own bed and suffer consiquences for our actions, have to accept responsibility and all that, and also sometimes, bad things or good things happen to us and we cannot explain why.  Which in my mind, makes perfect sense.

Anyways, hope that wasn't too deep.

I Cant see to find my map! Has anyone seen it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't even know if I can follow my own line of logic....  but here are my ramblings as someone who doesn't necessarily subscribe to a single system of religious belief.

I like the analogy (I believe it's part of Daoist philosophy) that the "greater being" approaches the world created as a watch maker approaches their craft (I take this to mean creation of existence as a whole, not creation on a person-by-person level, though sometimes I can see instances where it applies to both).  So in this line of thinking, the parts of the watch were at some time collected, assembled, and put into motion as a world, and then the watch casing was closed and left to tick as it will.  

If the gap between two ticks of the second-hand is a chronological measure of continuous time, then human behavior and the flow of ups and downs of the world are the the measures of life on a continuous line of existence.  A watch may at times act a little weird, inexplicably gaining and losing time, which warrants a need to be "adjusted" by the watch maker. I think existence has the same tendency.

So, to get back to your question, I'd say we're not given a pre-determined path. Perhaps a direction (as in, I was born a person, my dog was born a dog... or you could go with Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral.  you get the picture).  We  move (again, "we" as more than just ourselves... perhaps as a generation, or a as collection of generations) as a single part of overall existence- one gear turns another, turns another, and so on.  From there, I expect that we are only "reset" by the watch maker when we are, as a collective unit, inexcusably off the basis of the norm.  

So.... no.  I don't think we as individuals have a pre-determined path.  I think we're free to run wild and do our thing, as long as our actions do not overly distract the movement of collective existence as a whole.  And that's not to say you can't change the world as a single person... because one lifetime may be 1/100th of space between ticks of a second.  

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