Fate and Destiny: a philosophy thread

[Alex]

I believe we create the world around us. My husband challenged me on that, asking me if the world really was flat and the center of the universe when everybody believed that to be true. I couldn't answer that, though my initial thought is that yes, somehow, it had to be flat.

For me this raises a question. I'm curious how you would answer (though, of course, you don't need to):

What about the, at least, 2,000 years when all educated people knew the earth is round (the ancient Greeks had competing calculations of the circumference, some of which were amazingly accurate) and the uneducated believed it to be flat?

Is the reality creating require a shared belief or an individual one?

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Capt Jack

I could throttle you.

Woke up @ 3:33 am this morning...saw it, thought of your post and started laughing....rendering me even more awake.

The night following my 5:55 experience, I awoke at 3:21. It was like seeing a countdown, but a countdown to what? As used to I am to the clock experience, and as much as I can rely on it not to be a one-night-only thing, it never ceases to startle me into awakeness ... and the 3,2,1 countdown got to me more than most.

It did not repeat the third night. Unusual, but not unprecedented. They mostly come in threes (hmmm, maybe it's a Wicca thing), but one time happened for 7 straight days. A few times, it's just a pairing - which is what this latest bout seems to have been.


It never feels creepy (like what waking up at precisely 3:00 meant in 'The Exorcism of Audrey Rose), but it never fails to bring sudden and unwanted wakefulness.



Besides demonstrating (I think) that there are no coincidences, WHAT IN HELL DOES IT MEAN????!?!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

... but it never fails to bring sudden and unwanted wakefulness.

Hmm, so you're saying you reach a certain bare minimal level of consciousness, enough to turn your head and look at the clock, and then once you see the mysterious numbers, you are then jolted into a more conscious state? Ever consider the possibility that you reach that first state several times a night and failing to see a time that matches your coincidence, just roll over and go back to sleep, never reaching a high enough state of consciousness to remember it?

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

...WHAT IN HELL DOES IT MEAN????!?!

It could your subconcious attempting to communicate with your concious self and relay some important truism about your life and destiny.

Or it could just be that you are having trouble sleeping through the night.

It's a mystery.

[Capt Jack]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Besides demonstrating (I think) that there are no coincidences, WHAT IN HELL DOES IT MEAN????!?!

kinda like being trapped in some sorta freaky 'Lost' episode, isnt it?

this mornings was 5:55 am

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Hmm, so you're saying you reach a certain bare minimal level of consciousness, enough to turn your head and look at the clock, and then once you see the mysterious numbers, you are then jolted into a more conscious state? Ever consider the possibility that you reach that first state several times a night and failing to see a time that matches your coincidence, just roll over and go back to sleep, never reaching a high enough state of consciousness to remember it?

Mystery solved

[Ponine]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

It is hard to provide a detailed elaboration to such a basic concept (I say this not to be condescending, but because the question has me a little stumped). In searching for an answer online which would (hopefully) help me better express the thought, I ran across this:

Oh Kevy, I have agonized over this for days…. For hours at a time, and occasionally, mere moments.
I’ve always been referred to as a fatalist. I always thought it was because I always expect the worst case scenario.
I see now, that in fact, that is not what the word means.
I am far too solicitous for any one persons well being. And I think in a great many ways that has a lot to do with how I see the ideas of fate and destiny.

I’ve seen too many different religions at my young age to take one and just run with it and accept what it has to say as gospel truth.
I was accused of witchcraft as a teenager, and made an example of to my school… this clouds my perceptions of the Wicca faith. (Not that it is in any way wrong, I have just never delved because of my previous experiences.)

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Also, there are variations of the "Wiccan Reed" (or "Rede"), …snip…

This I was unable to view, it was blocked.

Nevertheless…
I’ve read things that I agree with this and that, and never quite agree with all….
I believe that we, as people, are set into this life with a reason to be here, but that reason is different for each of us.
We are able to “create” the better part of our lives by our actions, and how we interact with our world.
I believe we are connected to other people, or souls repeatedly over time, and possibly in different ways.
My best friend now, may be my brother in the next life, he may be my father. The boyfriend that touched me so deeply before his untimely death, may reoccur in a similar role, never to fufill, but always to affect.

There’s a reason for the people we encounter, we just don’t know what it is at the time.
Do I believe in the idea of the three fold … interesting. I like it, and I can see its merit. I am a very firm believer in the golden rule. Those of you who know me have prob seen it demonstrated in less than ideal situations.
I don’t want to wrong anyone, and I obsess over it when I think I have. Sometimes to an extreme point of figuring out what I can do to make it up to them.

Do I think some of it is pre-ordained? Absolutely. I agree with ISM,

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Does that answer your question?

It does and it doesn’t , but I suspect you guessed that. I am unsure what an “simple, earth-based Pagan belief system” is, but in this scenario I think that’s okay.

I’m rambling… at its core… I suppose I believe in fate, more than destiny. The ties that bind, the yarns in the tapestry of life…
My soul is bound to yours, who we are to each other this lifetime is not at stake, but I will always be bound.