Do you believe in fate or destiny?

Do things happen for a reason, or do we just live in chaos? Are we following some sort of 'divine plan' (religious or otherwise) or do we make our own choices?

Additionally, just to mix things up a notch: based on the answer above, do you believe in soulmates?

No and No.
And another No, just for fun.

Divine path? Soulmates? Bollocks!

We make our own way through life, there is no way that someone is guiding my footsteps at every turn. If they were I would roundhouse kick them to the face and tell them to GTFO.

Maybe I dont believe in destiny or fate because they scare me. Maybe Im worried that I dont have any control over where my life is going. BUT I dont think so. I think that everything in life is about how hard you work for what you want. Every now and then something extremely lucky happens and something great might fall into your lap, but often that happens to people who have been working hard for stuff anyway. Kind of like Gary Player used to say, the more I practise the luckier I get.

A mix of the two.

God gave us free will for a reason, to use it.
But, God also has a plan for each of us. It might not be a grand plan. It might not seem like something of worth to you, but it is a plan nontheless.

Someone told this story (and I paraphrase): She told the usual about not really believing. You know, saying you are a Christian, but not really having a relationship with God. One day she was waiting at the bus stop. A bum walks up to her, hugs her, and says: "Jesus loves you". Then literally drops dead.

This was not a story I heard from some sort of ?"belydenis"? in church.

I dont believe in soulmates.

It might not seem like much, but what if that was God's only plan for that man?

We make our own choices. If something happens, it's because of the choices leading up to it. I don't think I'd call it chaos, it's cause and effect, but chaos as in lacking order does work to label it.

Everything can be traced back to a choice that was made. What interests me is Carrots view. A plan by some controlling force and free will, I don't see how those two can be reconciled.

As for soulmates, bah, not a chance.

Carrots what do you mean by us having free will, yet still having a plan?

Do you mean that eg. you will be successful, but the choices you make along the way to get there are yours?

I personally believe that fate and destiny is irrelevant. I believe the only hand that guides people ios that of advice - which can be ignored. As for the masterplan, it seems that we are just gonna end up wiping each other out - the way things are.

Soulmates = Rubbish

What's interesting is to look at it from an islamic point of view, their belief is that you have free will, but your decisions have all been planned, so it was all planned that you would make those decisions.

I find that particular point of view highly confusing and i simply don;t understand it at all

I know its not true of all, or even a large percentage of Muslims, but some that live in Dubai live by the motto "Insh'Allah", which means God willing.

They take it to mean "if I am to die, God will decide and make it so", and so they drive like maniacs and have no regard for ANYONES safety, because they believe if you die, God wanted you to die.
Very, very annoying.

Well, the classic example I can think of is Jonah and the fish. God wanted him to go to a town, and tell the people about him. If Jonah had no free will, he would have just gone.
But he had a choice, and he did what he wanted to do for I don't know how many years, and in the end, he went to the town.
Had he gone from the beginning, things would have turned out differently for him.

Fate to me means that you are like a train on a track, things will work out only one way for you. But we have a choice, and in some cases, whichever choice we make, we will end up at the same destination. But I believe that is only true for some choices. I dont think God has every little event planned out for us, only those which He finds to be of interest.

Soul mates? LOL

maybe, but what happens if a drunk bus driver decides to drive over your soul mate? what then... you're destined to live without your soul mate because of some other bastard's mistake?

Yes, it is our destiny to pay taxes and die.

I believe in the cause and effect idea.

Soulmates? What a load of hogwash!

Duplicate topic btw.

Heh, Bahrain is the same. Except god willing or not... they still drive like maniacs.

Especially the Saudis

Yup, Im afraid they are the absolute worst.
Even friends of mine who were the nicest people, once behind the wheel, I just pretend I don't know them.