Fate vs. Chance

Aaron texted me today asking about where I stood on the issue of fate v. chance.

I had never really thought of it before. However, in the past, I have said that I believe that everything happens for a reason. I don't know if I believe that though. Why should everything happen for a reason? Why can't things JUST happen?

I didn't get a D in my Linear Algebra course because the universe was spiting me. No, I got that D because I didn't prepare well enough, because I didn't like the material, because I didn't fully understand the material, and because I just didn't care. It was my fault that I got that D. I can't blame it on some malevolent being or force(God, or Fate) - only myself.

Yet, I don't think it's saddening to think that there's no force outside of my own free will that governs what's going to happen. My 'soul' isn't empty. If I have a soul, the thing is full to the brim with optimism and pessimism, good and bad. Everyone is simultaneously both sides of the equation.

It's highly improbable that we're here - that we're alive. Yet we are. I suppose you could call it fate that our sperm was the one that first collided with the egg, and began that initial cellular division. However, it could be chance that OUR sperm, that ONE out of the potential 600 MILLION others that could have gotten there - got there. I suppose it all stems from your beliefs. If you think that there's a greater purpose, that we're not here, just because - then I suppose it's fate that I got that D in math class. However, I like to think it's my own fault.

This entry is really funny because Aaron was the one who showed me this quote:

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

- Umberto Eco

I think that kind of sums up how I feel about fate/chance.

Things happen. Their only 'purpose,' is to aid in learning. Bad things happen so you can learn how to avoid those things. Good things happen so you can learn to make those things happen again. Neutral things happen so you have something to compare "good" and "bad" events to. There isn't some magnificent purpose to our lives. We're here to live and learn - and If we're lucky, to love and be loved.