Mahendra's Musings - Part 7. Thoughts on "Destiny"

Thoughts on Destiny

The Oxford Dictionary defines destiny as “The events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future”.

This implies that the future is mapped out and is just waiting to happen. “It will necessarily happen also imply that we have no control over the event that is “destined” to happen. We can look at this in different ways. Is this true? Is it an established fact? If it is indeed true, does it make ambition, effort, diligence, dedication all meaningless? The answer from a person who believes in destiny probably would be that it is already your destiny that you would indeed apply those attributes! It appears a “no-win, not-lose” argument. In other words, destiny is something that you recognise only after it happens.  Unless a claim is made that destiny can be accurately predicted. The claim can be made before it occurs and tested for accuracy. I would feel that this sort of speculation is unhelpful.

Looking at “destiny” more seriously, it seems improbable that a “play” can be enacted on such a vast stage (just confining myself to Planet Earth) involving billions of people, not to mention animals, plants and other “things” and occurrences.

So where do I stand as regards Destiny?

I don’t believe that the World and all its players are programmed beforehand and that the future is just a continuation of the video-tape currently playing that has already been made.

Although it is not possible to bring in other belief systems such as Religion and God, rebirth and karma, “designed universe” and others who claim the future can be foretold such as astrologers, those possessed by spirits etc, let us leave them aside and look at Destiny from a purely scientific approach.

The first thing to state is that Science cannot support destiny as defined above. But if the meaning of destiny is broadened to include the prediction of possible events that may occur in the future, then indeed it is possible to talk about possibilities and probabilities, which of course is wholly different from the belief that the future is already determined.

If we take an individual and speculate on his/her future, these are some of the factors which may help in predicting some of his/her life events in the future.

1.      His genes.(His= his/her)

2.      The environment in which he was nurtured.

3.      His education.

4.      His immediate social circle.

5.      His personality

6.      His hobbies and past times.

7.      His likes and dislikes, diet, lifestyle

8.      His physical and ethnic characteristics

9.      His beliefs

10.   His health status.

11.   The country in which he is resident.

You can see that there are whole host of factors that will influence his future but in no way can we map out exactly what would happen to him as he goes on living.

Examples of predictions

A heavy smoker is likely to develop lung cancer.

A child growing up in an inner-city environment is more likely to be involved in crime.

A child born in a poor African state is less likely to achieve adulthood.

A careless motorist is more likely to be involved in an accident.

A more complex prediction like life expectancy can be made by combining all above factors but it always remains a prediction governed by probability and is never absolute.

I think you get the gist.

In answer to the question, ”What is your destiny?” answers can be only given with varying degrees of accuracy according to probability. Even where the predictive accuracy is high, it is not certain. For example, if you are a male carrying the Huntington gene, you are 100% sure of developing the disease but you may not live long enough to get it and how long you live is unknowable.

The only practical way to look at Destiny is in a broad sense as what the future may hold for you, and to take action in the present time which will either have a high probability of achieving a good outcome or lower the probability of reaching a bad one.,

As a student be diligent and apply yourself to your studies.

As an adult, manage your finances properly; be insured, have some savings etc.

For all humans, the advice is to live a healthy lifestyle.

And any more common sense ways of applying what we know about prevention in all aspects of your life.

If one brings Religion into this discussion, other aspects of how to lead your life in order to achieve a satisfactory outcome will arise. There are common elements, but widely differing ones too.

To believe that everything is destined to happen and you have no control whatsoever would surely make life very uncertain, almost paradoxically, and make you unhappy, fearful and probably devoid of satisfaction, whereas belief in no such thing as destiny is likely to make your life more meaningful and also give you a sense of having some control over your life.

Before I leave the subject, I must refer to the closely allied concept of Determinism. It is defined as “the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.”

To me, it follows that if you believe in determinism, you would accept destiny. Determinism takes control out of you and it accepts external causes outside our control as what determines outcomes. Yet determinism is not the same as causality, i.e., every action (cause) is followed by a predictable outcome (reaction). Determinism is a belief in the inevitability of causation. Everything that happens is the only possible thing that could happen. The chains and networks of causes are so powerful and inexorable that every outcome is inevitable. That is determinism.

How about fatalism? Very close to determinism but not the same. If you believe in determinism, you believe that your whole life follows a set path because every action results in a certain outcome and life is such a series of events which you have no control over. The fatalist is in agreement with the determinist in that both agree that the ultimate result or end or “fate” is the same, but the fatalist believes that we can take different paths but the ultimate result, is our destiny. In other words, they agree that the final destiny is the same, but the path could be different. The fatalist is concerned with the ultimate end which cannot be changed, e.eg, you will die at the age of 50 and that is fixed, whatever you do, whereas the determinist will map out in more detail exactly how you will die at the age of 50.

Fatalism usually implies the acceptance of a Supreme Power or God or Gods, who ultimately decide our fate. We cannot go against his (their) wishes however much we try, whereas determinism, although still compatible with a belief in god in one sense, does not necessarily imply acceptance of a god. People, who saw that the natural world seemed to operate according to fixed laws, noted that people were part of this natural world, and therefore proposed that people--including the inner workings of our minds, desires, "choices", and so on--also operated according to fixed laws.  A strict determinist does not believe in true choice whereas a Fatalist believes he has choices but whatever choice he makes, the ultimate outcome is out of his control and decided by God(s).

The Reader is left with the choice of examining the arguments and deciding for himself/herself which would be the most fruitful approach to a better life. The eternal problem, however, is to overcome limitations brought about by being locked into a belief system which acts as that “person inside your head” who keeps telling you that “what matters is not what you like to believe by logical argument. What matters is the TRUTH! And I am telling you what it is”!.

Mahendra

08/02/2018