6 September 2009

Fate, destiny or fate?

Is there such a thing as destiny?

A topic as old as humanity, we all like to leave everything to fate. The only problem is that nobody apart from God himself knows what will happen. Really, we know what can happen but what will happen?

A colleague asked me the other about my opinion regarding this thing called 'fate'. My pedantic brain was on full alert then, stating that fate and destiny are not the same thing although many people like to interchange them. If you mean 'fate' as in the perspective of the future, then they are the same thing. If you mean 'fate' as something that has happened, they are very different things altogether.

I suppose she was asking me from the aspect of the past, my answer was simply: "There is no such as fate".

They were stunned for a moment knowing that I profess the faith of one of the people of the holy books but would give such an answer than contradicts it.

Or seems to contradict it.

My explanation was that what is called 'fate' in the past tense is actually 'hindsight' ie. understanding the nature of an event after it has happened. As humans we don't know if something will happen until it happens. There are signs of things happening in the logical sense if the conditions are met but will not have happened until it actually happened. Was it fate that the Lehmann Brothers were to collapse in one of the biggest financial meltdown at Wall Street in the years? If it were so why even bother setting up the business eh?

Similarly, she gave me her own opinion which was fully agreeable IMO : she would get married and give birth to three children, that in the sense that was fate from the her viewpoint looking back in time.

A younger lady whom was part of the discussion spoke about 'fate' in the future tense that the cogs of destiny are already turning in place and will come to be as stated in the Book of Life, with God as the chief architect.

I replied that in God's perspective, yes there is a 'fate'. But from our own perspective, there isn't, for the reason that we exist only in the present and tomorrow only exists when it happens, whilst the past is already past. If anything the past is the only thing that we know is true.

Was it 'fate' that I had nasi kandar for lunch today? In hindsight, yes because I did have nasi kandar for lunch. But if I actually went for economy rice instead, wouldn't that fate be absolutely wrong then? If so, doesn't it mean fate doesn't exist since it doesn't happen until it happens? Oh, then the argument is rewritten that it was fate that I had economy rice for lunch, all of which can't be down to fate simply for the reason that I could also have had a laksa for lunch.

With so many branches of choice, surely I'm not fixed to having {food item here} until I know what I actually consumed for lunch? Heck I might even puasa out of sheer laziness on a Sunday afternoon...

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