Something I've been wondering about lately is just the path of life, whether we choose our destiny or it's written in the stars as the Centaurs in Harry Potter suggest.
Famous passages have been written about this, which is particularly evident in Shakespeare's writing.
Cassius' speech from Julius Caesar, ""The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we are underlings." shows one opinion, or maybe that was just a lie Cassius used to convince Brutus to kill Caesar.
Then again Shakespeare references this in Romeo and Juliet by calling them "star-crossed lovers", as does Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games dubbing Katniss and Peeta the same. Why is this? Because star-crossed means the stars are working against the couples, that their fates are not meant to end well or together.
So obviously this theme is evident in literature, and it can also be related back to religion and philosophy.
For example, Budhism, which has three accepted answers to "who conrtols destiny".
"Theism believes in God or a supernatural power. It attributes our destiny to God’s power. God is the one who creates our life and designs every event that happens in our life. Therefore, whatever happens in our life, whether is good or bad, is God’s creation or God’s will. Only God has the power to change our destiny. We, as human beings, have no power to change our life or our destiny. We have to rely on God to change our destiny. It is this reason that we must pray God for his mercy."
"Fatalism upholds that our present life is predetermined. They believe that every event that happened, is happening and is going to happen is absolutely predetermined. It is fate whether one is rich or poor, fortune or misfortune. Under this view, we have no hope to change our destiny. What we can do is just to accept our life because that is our fate."
"Accidentalist promulgates that everything that happens is all by accident. There is neither God’s will nor fate. Just as leaves that fade during the autumn. When the wind blows, some may fall in the middle of sweet flowers whereas some in the stinking pit. Whether in the middle of sweet flowers or in the stinking pit, they all happen by accident. So is our destiny. By chance, some may be luckily born in the noble families and some may be unfortunately born in the humble families. In a word, fortune or misfortune is just by accident. There is no other power behind them. Under this view, we have nothing to do with our destiny."
Does whether or not our destiny is predetermined fit into other religions too?
Catholics don't. They believe that whatever actions we do or don't do will determine where we go in the after life, heaven or hell, or somewhere in the middle.
So what do I think?
I'm not really sure. I think we may have been sent into the world for a purpose, but we have hundreds or maybe even thousands of decisions to make each day. They range from what to eat for breakfast, to what question to bubble in on a test, to things that really reflect our character like whether or not to help someone in need or whether or not to cheat. I think some things have to be coincidences because so many people sway our decisions or are the reasons we made them in the first place. If our life really is predetermined, the story of not just my life, but everyone in the worlds lives are intertwined and relate to eachother.
This concept is so complicated, and as someone raised catholic I'm supposed to believe in certain things like how I'll either go to heaven or hell. But how could I, if all of my life was preset? My actions or decisions would be preset. It's most certainly complicated, which is why it is such a great precedent for literature, film, art, and maybe even religion. It's nice (and confusing) to think about all these different view points.
No comments:
Post a Comment