Do you think everything happens for a reason?

Yes, but we’ll never know what the reasons are.

There is but one reason: the Big Bang.

@sferik: I think that’s shorthand longhand for no, right? But what’s the reason for the Big Bang?

So the question might be: Does everything happen for a knowable reason? Remember your parents favorite answer when you said “Why?”...“Because” Does that qualify as a reason? So maybe the question is..Does everything (anything) happen for a knowable and satisfactory reason. My guess. No.

But that won’t stop us for making up reasons

..from making…

No, but I firmly believe that every goodbye is another hello.

Check out what these guys have to say.

http://www.templeton.org/questions/purpose/

i do, though some reason we never know and can’t predict what will happen next.
So i just keep my goal my principle, never ask why.

Possibly a deeper form of this question is whether everything happens for a reason, or due to a Reason. In other words, does everything have causation, even if it is simply chaos or randomness, or is there some sort of Plan divised by some “intelligence,” whether God, the god of your choice, alien intelligences, etc. My own belief is that it requires more blind faith to believe this incredibly complex Universe is the result of randomness than the result of a Plan. There is an old gnostic theory that if you were able to grasp the reason for everything, then you would become God. I find it comforting to believe there is a Reason for everything, even those things that appear random and chaotic, and I don’t need to know, nor am I able to comprehend, even my small part of it, much less the whole shebang.

So if your question is does everything have causation, I’d say that is close to self-evident, but if your question is whether it is part of some Great Plan, I’d say that is a matter of faith, and I believe everything is part of that Plan, even though in my human arrogance I’d like to believe that I am the center of the universe.

I don’t think so, I think human beings invented the idea of reason. The Big Bang is a cause, not a reason, and it may not be even that.
Myself, I see life as a series of randon events over which we have some slight control.

Go out and look at the stars. Do you see patterns? Constellations? Yes, most people do. But they aren’t there. We try to see order in chaos. Sometimes there is only chaos.
Another example: listen to music, and watch something random on TV with the sound turned down. Does it make a good video for the music? Oftentimes it does, but in fact it is just 2 random things being taken in together, with meaning of some sort being imposed on them by you.

To conclude: short answer no.

QuizMaster, you bring up some interesting points. Humans are awesome at pattern recognition. We’re so good at it that we see patterns even when they don’t exist. From an evolutionary standpoint (or from a design standpoint, for that matter), we’re so good at seeing patterns because patterns are useful for us—because much of the time they help us to make accurate judgments about the world. That kind of reasoning is much more than simply imposing order and meaning where none exist.

I’m gonna go with bob here. Many studies show pattern recognition is an essential part, perhaps the most basic foundation, of human learning. Perhaps we are sufficiently arrogant as a species to intellectualize randomness and chaos and deny the pattern and meaning of seeming randomness.

everything happen for a basic reason and some special reasons, and the basic reason is what u means!

Yes. And somewhere inside, we ask for it as well!

I don’t think everything happens for a reason. There may be explanations for some things, but reasons, no. I think often there are random occurrences over which we have no control, and over which no one else does either. I suspect that at times we are compelled to believe there are reasons to these occurrences to gain a feeling of safety or security in our purpose here.

Yes, I believe everythiing happens for a reason.

Often, it seems that when people say, “Wow, that had to have happened for a reason,” they are somehow implying that the reason was directly related to their life. Egotistical? Seems that way. As if everything happens in order to directly impact my life, or everything that happens as a result of my actions or words somehow happens because the result is important to someone else’s life. Too much emphasis on self in that assumption.

Yes. God is in control and He is never wrong and He has a purpose for everything that happens…even you reading this question!

Yes it does, you just can not all ways see why at first.

“Yes. God is”...

How can you really believe that ONE being cares so much at the day to day little things for everyone?

I just do…and that’s my right…and I don’t even have to explain it…and that is my right too!

Yes, everything after the very first thing that happened. Is a result of the latter. So yes.

Try to reverse engineer your day(from going to bed to waking up) and you will see I am correct.

Thank You

You see, the macro is too difficult for us to understand. However, we can understand the micro. We can not see the whole universe. However, we can see our bodies and they function the same (ie. matter/energy). So it is safe to say that “The answers too all of your questions are within you”.

Not from outside you.

No. But we want to believe that there are, and so we do. But everything?? No. Absolutely not.

No. But it’s a useful way to reframe things that are occuring that are very disturbing or unsettling so that you can manage whatever emotions are coming up for you and do what is necessary in the moment. I’m all for functional coping methods.

Everything happens as a direct result to what happened before it. You are a result of your experiences, the concept of ‘you’ is your ‘ego’

The ego is an illusion, there is no you, there is only universe, there is no soul, only matter. There is no free will, because you will act in the way that you’re experiences directly dictate you to do. Everything goes back to the big bang, which in itself happened because the universe expanded as far as it could go, that is, if you understand how the cyclical universe theory works. So in short, everything is the direct result of everything that happened before it.