Some people believe that everything happens for a reason. Other people believe in free will – that we make all of our own choices independently.<\/p>\n
I think the reason that both of these ideas generate such potent opposition is because neither of them are the whole story. Each idea has a little bit of evidence to support it, but by its nature any evidence of one is also evidence against the other. Since evidence against an idea is always stronger than evidence for something (it only takes one counter-example to disprove something, but a single example doesn’t prove anything) we have strong opposition to each idea from “the other side.”<\/p>\n
The truth, as it usually is, is most likely somewhere in the middle. I think that everything happens for a reason – if you let it. Many people have made a decision somewhere in their life that they couldn’t explain. It was contrary to what it seemed they should do, but they just felt it was the right choice and they didn’t understand why until later.<\/p>\n
There are things, I think, we’re supposed to experience, things we are supposed to learn in our life. Often this path is far from the easiest one to take, but it’s always more fulfilling than the easy way. I think when we stop and listen, we usually know which way holds the most for us. Sometimes there are many beneficial paths, even.<\/p>\n
Contrarily, I do not, however, think there is any one single correct path for a person. Life is full of tons of decisions. Perhaps some of them are not consequential enough, or perhaps the difference isn’t enough for us to feel it. I don’t know. More to the point, I don’t see it as reasonable that assume there’s a series of “right” decision or that making a “wrong” decision means you necessarily miss a critical experience or a lesson. But of course, some lessons are easier to learn at certain times – and some doors are only open for so long.<\/p>\n
Perhaps an example is in order. It is obvious to me I’m supposed to be here in Zurich. It’s also clear to me I don’t belong here in the long term. I made a lot of decisions that led me here. Different decisions may have lead me here – or somewhere else where I could have learned similar lessons. Any of those paths would have felt natural once I was on one of them. But the path of not doing anything – of not venturing far away and learning what was else is in the world, I think, would have seen me not just fall short of my potential, but also brought much less happiness into my life in the long term. Paradoxically, Zurich in-and-of-itself does not generally make me happy – in fact, it has many things that make me unhappy. But the travel opportunities, the personal growth required in such a change, and the experiences are completely… right.<\/p>\n
It seems likely to me that most people – if not everyone – have certain potential destinies, certain things they can – if they chose – add to the world. Some people can, I think, see this easier than others. Of course, many people use their free will to fight their potential. Others don’t notice it, are too scared of it, or are too busy with drugs or other detriments to understand it.<\/p>\n
In my opinion this is what makes humanity great. We constantly make decisions – sometimes those decisions take us in the general direction that makes the most sense at the time, sometimes not. However, in most cases, it’s not about right or wrong. If we learn and grow from those situations, it’s my experience we will continue to find open doors and new lessons. The things that happen are a consequence of our choices made from free will as well as the things we have and have not learned. A combination of “for a reason” and “free will.” I think we can learn most lessons in whatever order we chose. Or, as some people do, we can chose to not learn and grow at all. Such is the uniqueness and greatness of humanity.<\/p>\n
It’s worth noting that I don’t use the word “believe” very often. Despite the fact it was a comedy making fun of religion, I think Chris Rock’s line in “Dogma” was quite right – beliefs are dangerous – they’re hard to change. It’s better to have an idea. Hence the repetitive use of “I think.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some people believe that everything happens for a reason. Other people believe in free will – that we make all of our own choices independently. I think the reason that both of these ideas generate such potent opposition is because neither of them are the whole story. Each idea has a little bit of evidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phildev.net\/phil\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}