Do you believe in fate?

No, I do not believe in predisposition. Things do happen for a reason and that reason is cause and effect, not by some mystical arrangement or plan or script. I believe in free will in that I have the power to make decisions, though outcomes depend largely on external forces. See ya….Gary/wtf
PS: Fortune telling is total nonsense in my opinion.

So if I went to a fortune-teller and the answer I get is not exactly what I wanted to hear, I still have the power to turn the tables?

Well of course there are external forces, such as other people’s choices etc. that you can’t control

I’m just wondering how the heck people think that fortune tellers have the ability to see what is going to happen in the future

Everything happens for a reason. However, we always discover the reason only after the fact. Once something is happened, if feels like it happened for a reason. That’s just because we are human and making meaning is what makes us human.

There is no such thing as “controlling” what happens. We can influence, but mostly we are dancing on the surface of the waves of reality.

Fortune tellers are very good at reading humans from subtle symbols, guessing what has happened in the past, and thus making suggestions about the future. Sometimes your wishful thinking helps make predictions come true. But mostly we ignore all the evidence that doesn’t fit the prediction, and remember only that which makes the prediction sound true.

I strongly believe that everything is random, accidental, temporal and contingent. This will be no surprise to people who have seen some of my other opinions on Fluther, and I apologize if I am beginning to sound repetitive.

I am fated to believe in free will. It’s a problem that I’m dealing with in the only way I’m allowed to.

Actually, fate takes on a new meaning if you believe that randomness doesn’t exist.

I’ve always believed in supernatural powers, so one day I decided to go to a fortune teller. She told me certain things about the future that makes me think: How can she “know” e-x-a-c-t-l-y what will happen? If I want to do something I’ll do it, if not I’ll just decide not to.

Same when you ask these fortune tellers about thing such as “Will I get the job or not?” or “Do I and XX have a future?” How the hell do they know.

But then sometimes they say things that pretty much fit reality. Which makes you wonder.

I know, fortune telling is just rubbish. I just used to believe that some ppl can foresee the future, but now Im not so sure anymore.

The best way I’ve heard it explained is this:

Fate = You’re gonna die.
Destiny = When, where, and how.

I think freewill is a joke. I think it is all about cause and affect and as much as we feel as though we control our own behavior and therefore outcomes, there are entirely too many outside forces pushing upon us for that to be true.

Fortunetellers? I’m not buying what they are selling.

@SuperMouse

Doesn’t that mean that fortune tellers can predict the future by “reading” the outside forces and make qualified guesses what will happen (“cause and effect”-way of thinking)?

Meaning it is possible to predict the future?

@mary84 the outside forces are dynamic and changing every second, thereby changing to the outcome.

Yes I do. I never did before, but today I think that processes such as natural selection govern the universe and that everything is predetermined.

No.

Fortune tellers are very good con artists who have learned to read people.

Were you to go to the same fortune teller repeatedly it wouldn’t be very long before they would be trying to embroil you in a more elaborate scam requiring progressively greater amounts of money to dispel various “curses” or similar hokum.

This is a gradual process and only used upon those whom they deem gullible enough to be vulnerable to their crap.

You indicate by what you’ve written that there is a part of you that wants to believe in their powers to see the future.

Do youself and your bank account a favor. If you just go to fortune tellers just don’t go to anyone more than once. This way they can’t reel you in gradually.

And look at it this way if you must. If they really do possess the ability to see into the future then it shouldn’t matter which one you go to, right?

Just remember the example of the frog who is placed in a pot of water. If you immediately turn up the heat he hope out.

But if the heat is only raised very gradually a few degrees over a long time you can successfully cook him as long as you are patient.

This is the way these characters work. Don’t let yourself be like that frog or you’ll eventually be separated from significant amounts of your hard earned cash.

No, but I often call serendipity or coincidence by that name.

Fate is a concept invented by humans to help cope with our inability to accept our powerlessness. Chaos Theory governs the universe, so that seemingly irrelevant details may soon combine with a myriad of other such details to have a huge impact on the progression of time. Even with the most powerful computer possible (limited by our energy sources), we cannot predict the future with any certainty more than a few seconds ahead. Our brains can find likely outcomes of certain events based on past experience, but we are unable to eliminate the fluctuating probabilities that govern the universe.

No, I do not believe in fate, although it may be an effective coping mechanism for those unable to comprehend the undeniable fact that the universe is unthinking and uncaring.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am master of my fate and captain of my soul.

I believe in fate only to an extent: that all things that happen will happen, almost as it they were predetermined. What I mean is that, even though people will live feeling that they are controlling their lives, that belief and what they do will still come to pass. I believe in fate looking from the future to the past, not the past looking to the future. It will all happen, and for a reason, but none of that will be determined until it actually happens.

You can’t really predict the future. There are some short term things you can, and you can predict vague happenings based on human nature, but nothing major a ways down the road.

My mom would occasionally say something that seemed totally random, and it would end up being exactly right. She didn’t realize when she said it that it was anything other than speculation, but there would be too many details to be a coincidence.
Occasionally this happens to me, and it’s bothersome when you see it flesh out.

Yes.

No. And for good “fortune tellers” crystal balls are just a pretense. They observe body language and facial expressions and voice.

No.
I think that it seems some people are lucky.
I think we have free will but life is difficult for most people.
I wish I knew what good luck was about. Sometimes it seems it is about being the best manipulator. Manipulators seem to always get there way.

Try the short novel, “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” by Thornton Wilder. A timeless, elegant compelling exploration of your subject.

No. There’s no fate, and things don’t happen “for a reason.” Sometimes, an event is so uncanny that it seems as if it’s “meant to be,” but it’s really nothing more than a great coincidence.

We have free will, but we get to control so few things in life. We have the power to control our attitudes and the way we treat other people. In the absence of a glandular disorder or some other endgenous reason, we have the power to control how much we weigh. We can choose whether to be hardworking or lazy. Maybe we can decide to pick forgiveness over lingering anger and resentment. Beyond those things, however, life constantly changes in ways that are beyond us or up to chance.