I believe this is true...Anyone else agree?

[Ken785]

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there...to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be but you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.

And sometimes things happen to you at the time that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would never realize your potential, strength, will power or heart.

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck. Illness, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test limits of your soul.

Without these small tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet affect your life. The successes and downfalls that you experience can be learned from. In fact they are probably the most poignant and important ones. If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.

If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but also because they are teaching you to love and open your heart and eyes to little things. Make everyday count. Appreciate everything that you possibly can, for you may never experience it again.

Talk to people whom you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Let yourself fall in love, free and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to.

Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you. Create your own life and then go out and live it.

 

[Aboleo]

Bah, humbug!

 

[lordson]

i believe that everything happens for a reason and everything will always work out fine in the end

 

[The Forms]

I don't buy it. Everything happens for a reason, but no one even pretends to explain how this is all possible. Assume it is true that there's some great, cosmic reason for every little thing that happens in your life. How and why? Is God planning every detail of the lives of 7 billion people all day? Assuming God exists, why would he do this? WHY would this system be set up? What's the point?

I understand it's a fun, romantic way to view the world. If that helps you get through the day that's fine, but how do you actually put FAITH in such a concept? There's absolutely no evidence that there's some great cosmic reason why you met some person. You just feel that this is the case because it sounds good, and it gets you through the day. In reality, it's all random.

There's no rhyme or reason to anything. If evolution happened all over again it's likely that people would have never evolved. The things we value or only as valuable as we're willing to decide they get to be. There is no meaning or plan to any of it. We just assign meaning to things because it makes life easier.

Does everything happen for a reason? Yes, but not in the cosmic sense. In a very cause/effect sense, ie, there's a reason I go to work. Because I need to pay the rent and buy food. Is there a reason why I met this particular person at this particular time? Yes, because my friend said, "hey, you should really meet person x. Or, I started talking to x at the laundrymat. What sounds more plausible: that fate put me and person x together, or me and person x happened to both need to wash our clothes at the same time.

The faith that everything happens for a reason is incoherent. It sounds great when you just met a person who really enriches your life at a good time for it. But then when you think children being killed in drive by shootings it's harder to put faith in this concept you have no rational reason to believe. There's no way to rationalize how a child dying in a drive by is good for anyone.

In order to somehow make this make sense, then you have to put even MORE faith in this cosmic "everything for a purpose" idea, but you don't really have any basis for believing it besides that it SOUNDS good.

In the cosmic sense NOTHING happens for a reason.

 

[Mr. Wolf]

Case in point.. I got into a fight and kinda didn't win and didn't loose. The guy that fought me was there for a reason. Lesson learned I need to be less ****y, and I need to learn to fight..

Another one, I get shot down by this HB8 teen. For being too ****y and not building enough rapport and jumping the gun. I need to be less ****y and build more rapport.


People or situations (the same thing) at the point where you fail provide you with an opportunity to advance. One door closes shut and the other one opens up, and you grow as a result..


The Universe is designed to fail you. It also means it is designed to build you up.

 

[KontrollerX]

I believe in cause and effect because its logical and makes sense but not the everything happens for a reason thing.

Thats mystical magical religious thinking territory.

My take is sh!t just happens and we gotta deal with it.

If its good sh!t great.

If its bad sh!t damn gotta overcome that.

Its all about growing up and being a man.

 

[Naughtyboy]

I don't buy it. Everything happens for a reason, but no one even pretends to explain how this is all possible. Assume it is true that there's some great, cosmic reason for every little thing that happens in your life. How and why? Is God planning every detail of the lives of 7 billion people all day? Assuming God exists, why would he do this? WHY would this system be set up? What's the point?

I understand it's a fun, romantic way to view the world. If that helps you get through the day that's fine, but how do you actually put FAITH in such a concept? There's absolutely no evidence that there's some great cosmic reason why you met some person. You just feel that this is the case because it sounds good, and it gets you through the day. In reality, it's all random.

There's no rhyme or reason to anything. If evolution happened all over again it's likely that people would have never evolved. The things we value or only as valuable as we're willing to decide they get to be. There is no meaning or plan to any of it. We just assign meaning to things because it makes life easier.

Does everything happen for a reason? Yes, but not in the cosmic sense. In a very cause/effect sense, ie, there's a reason I go to work. Because I need to pay the rent and buy food. Is there a reason why I met this particular person at this particular time? Yes, because my friend said, "hey, you should really meet person x. Or, I started talking to x at the laundrymat. What sounds more plausible: that fate put me and person x together, or me and person x happened to both need to wash our clothes at the same time.

The faith that everything happens for a reason is incoherent. It sounds great when you just met a person who really enriches your life at a good time for it. But then when you think children being killed in drive by shootings it's harder to put faith in this concept you have no rational reason to believe. There's no way to rationalize how a child dying in a drive by is good for anyone.

In order to somehow make this make sense, then you have to put even MORE faith in this cosmic "everything for a purpose" idea, but you don't really have any basis for believing it besides that it SOUNDS good.

In the cosmic sense NOTHING happens for a reason.

Awesome post. Agree with you 100%

 

[Ever onward]

Wow, Ken. I love it!

I take it you reposted it from somewhere. Source?

 

[joekerr31]

none of you exist.

you are all figments of my imagination.

 

[Ever onward]

none of you exist.

you are all figments of my imagination.

I sense sarcasm Joe. I take it you don't believe such things?

 

[The Forms]

Case in point.. I got into a fight and kinda didn't win and didn't loose. The guy that fought me was there for a reason. Lesson learned I need to be less ****y, and I need to learn to fight..

Another one, I get shot down by this HB8 teen. For being too ****y and not building enough rapport and jumping the gun. I need to be less ****y and build more rapport.


People or situations (the same thing) at the point where you fail provide you with an opportunity to advance. One door closes shut and the other one opens up, and you grow as a result..


The Universe is designed to fail you. It also means it is designed to build you up.

These objections are more easily explained by cause and effect than some great cosmic plan. The cause of this girl turning you down, or this guy trying to beat you up is your ****iness. Not the UNIVERSE. The universe isn't trying to teach you a lesson. The universe doesn't care if you get run over by a bus!

 

[Ever onward]

I believe in cause and effect because its logical and makes sense but not the everything happens for a reason thing.

Thats mystical magical religious thinking territory.

My take is sh!t just happens and we gotta deal with it.

If its good sh!t great.

If its bad sh!t damn gotta overcome that.

Its all about growing up and being a man.

What's wrong with a little faith? I can't speak for everyone but I've been through A LOT of bad sh1t in my life. I like to tell myself that all that stuff happened for a reason. Maybe it's true or maybe not. But believing that it is true makes me feel a lot better about life. It is so easy to get down on yourself.

 

[KontrollerX]

"What's wrong with a little faith? I can't speak for everyone but I've been through A LOT of bad sh1t in my life. I like to tell myself that all that stuff happened for a reason. Maybe it's true or maybe not. But believing that it is true makes me feel a lot better about life. It is so easy to get down on yourself."

I spent the beginning half of my life trusting to faith in religion, people, you name it only to have it shattered time and time again.

I've come to believe aliasguy is right and that the word "cynical" is merely a harsh word for "pattern recognition."

So call me a pattern recognizer.

Thats what works for me.

Though hey man if faith works for you stick with it.

I think we all have to go with what works for each of us.

 

[Deep Dish]

What's wrong with a little faith? I can't speak for everyone but I've been through A LOT of bad sh1t in my life. I like to tell myself that all that stuff happened for a reason.

Some people prefer not being delusional.

 

[Ever onward]

Thanks Deep Dish, I forgot you know everything. Why not write one of your definitive essays on the subject.

As to me, I prefer holding onto some hope. That yes, the bad things that happened in my life weren't for nothing.

 

[Deep Dish]

Thanks Deep Dish, I forgot you know everything.

Oh how so flattered am I you place words into my mouth to which never have I claimed. You witty, witty man.

The audacious tenacity of the brain's propensity in its pattern-seeking impulses to connect the dots where no connections ought be made is astounding in its stupefying persistence. It's evolutionary and is my overarching thesis. Hope springs eternal, but in matters of correctness all ideas are not equally valid.

 

[Ever onward]

Oh how so flattered am I you place words into my mouth to which never have I claimed. You witty, witty man.

The audacious tenacity of the brain's propensity in its pattern-seeking impulses to connect the dots where no connections ought be made is astounding in its stupefying persistence. It's evolutionary and is my overarching thesis. Hope springs eternal, but in matters of correctness all ideas are not equally valid.

Blah blah blah

Him use big words! He so smart, we so dumb! Write an essay and educate us oh great one! :flowers:

 

[Luthor Rex]

none of you exist.

you are all figments of my imagination.

Could you imagine me in bed with Hilary Duff please?

Thanks.

:flowers:

 

[Luthor Rex]

Oh how so flattered am I you place words into my mouth to which never have I claimed. You witty, witty man.

The audacious tenacity of the brain's propensity in its pattern-seeking impulses to connect the dots where no connections ought be made is astounding in its stupefying persistence. It's evolutionary and is my overarching thesis. Hope springs eternal, but in matters of correctness all ideas are not equally valid.

There's actually a new book about that and how we evolved tool-use. There's a review in the latest Skeptical Inquirer.

:flowers:

 

[TheHumanist]

Who's to say that we know everything. The problem with faith that it is not a science. That's the limit, what cannot be observe, predicted, or experimented consistantly cannot be a science. However, how can we disprove that the patterns people seen is actually just the mind and its perceptions making patterns up rather than something else? I remember from a chat session held in sosuave about love that there are moments that seem like so unreal that you have to wonder how can this even happen.

You know, ironically both sides, things happening by cause and effect and things happening by a reason both have implications on free will. Both can say everything is deterministic. The former says for everything is the effect of past effects (even if a person have a choice in a decision, he is determinisitcally will choose one choice over the others as long as the conditions favors it). The latter says everything is "fated" to happen.

As for my own opinion, I see no problem in believing in either form for what I said above. However, I do see one problem is people take believing in either side too much. Too many take it as an excuse to not self-examine. The fatalist just say it is not meant to be and never look into why something happen, while the determist just say I did what my conditions drive me to do and never look to why either nor if it could be done differently.

Who's to say which is right, neither can prove nor disprove it. Who to say that whatever brings a person to this site was just brought by cause and effect or what it was was, its role to bring them here.

Ok, that was some confusion rambling....