For a long time I have asked, do things good or bad happen to us for a reason?

Your house burns and you loss everything.. why? A flood destroys your home unexpectly one night...why? Someone close to you dies unexpectly..why?

Is this just life and sh*t happens or is it something bigger each of us need to look at and learn something from whatever events good or bad happens to us?

Whats your take? Is it fate to direct us to another path in our lives when these bad events happen unexpectly so we can finally live the life we are meant to live?

Some believe there is no such thing as a bad event regardless of the pain one endures. You have others who might feel it's the pain that directs us for without pain life is rosy no need to change directions and the pain is the motivation to change.

After living 50 years now I concluded all things happen for a reason and it simply to grow for the better.

I'm an agnostic. I'm lean somewhat more in favor of belief in a "higher power" and an afterlife. That out of the way, I don't think anything happens for a reason. I think everything that happens is just due to cause and effect. The universe doesn't conspire to do anything good or bad for anyone. It's indifferent to our existence. For the same reason, I don't believe in fate either. That seems to me to be a form of pre-destination where your life was already written for you.

I think cause and effect have always explained pretty much anything that's observable in life. If things happen for a reason, there most be a reasoner, and someone or some thing outside of our control must be intervening in our daily lives. It's always interesting when a tornado hits some block of houses and someone lives to tell about it, they get on the news and talk about how god spared their lives. Yet I guess I'm to believe that god didn't care about the lives of family next door that got swept away, even though that family probably had the same beliefs and went to the same church. The one guy that survives the plane crash things it was divine intervention or fate that kept him alive, or there is some higher "reason" for it. But there's also such a thing as dumb luck. Maybe he just happened to be sitting in a part of the plane with the most structural integrity and if someone else had bought his seat, that person would be alive.

I think at the heart of believing things happen for a reason is to make us feel comfortable. Because the thought that any of us could die at any moment for some senseless reason like a tree branch falling on our head, or tire blowing out on a freeway is too much to unnerving fathom. So we have to believe it was "just his time" it was "meant" to happen, when in truth, if the person had stepped out of his house one second earlier, the tree would've fallen behind him instead of on him. Life is crazy.

No.

Random occurences like the ones you described do not happen for some ulterior reason, they are simply coincidences.

There is no such thing as fate - any successful person will tell you that they did not get to where they are by luck, but by dedication, ambition and hard work. Fate is just an excuse thrown around by the lazy and the ignorant who are not willing to work to earn their stripes so will just blame fate and their fortune.

This is what I like about this forum differing views and opinions.

It's all good and appreciate it.

Powerlifter