Do you believe in fate - OR - responsibility for our destiny?

Sort of both? If that makes sense.

I believe we all have a destiny that is unique to all of us but it is OUR responsibility to get there. You can’t just sit on the couch and wait for the “vis deorum” to come and enlighten you and/or send you on your way.

Responsibility for our destiny.

i dont really give it much thought.

i like the idea of being responsible for my own actions. MAKES ME FEEL FREE. then again, if fate exists, we would never know it exists, so it wouldn’t really matter.

I think we ultimately have a goal we are all destined to reach (bad or good). We make choices along the way, however these choices will be limited as they will all lead to the same goal.

It is a very difficult subject. I think of it as many paths all leading to the same point.

My genetic makeup is my fate. The way my parents raised me in my formative years are essentially my fate even though I may have contributed by my actions or reactions. Likewise the aspects of my environment that I could not possibly have influenced that were beyond my control. Today the decisions that I make have to do with an accounting for my genetic make up and history and these are in my control. These are limited only by the capacity I have to work within a world populated by others with similar histories.

Both. We all have a Destiny, but it can be changed by the choices we make. There is an ultimate goal for each of us right? But you have to work to get there.

I am not certain that I believe in fate. I do believe in circumstances beyond our control. We also have proclivities via our genetics.

That being said, while we are subject to circumstances beyond our control, it is our personal responsibility to handle them as well as possible.

Life is not fair and it is not fair for anyone. It is less fair for some, yes, but it is all of our responsibility to handle what comes.

We can either blame our failures on circumstances beyond our control or accept responsibility for our actions.

I believe that we create our own destinies, some consciously and some unconsciously. Thus, we are responsible for some of it.

Responsibility. There is something like fate, but it’s up to you whether to go along with it or not.

As Edgar Casey said, there are some accidents. I believe we pick our lives and then it’s how we respond to conditions, obstacles, and good times that get us to our goal.

Our genetic endowment defines our predisposition to have certain limits on some abilities.

Someone genetically endowed with the raw materials to be a great athlete or some one with a superior intellect (or both is possible) but genetics is not our fate.

Our upbringing, our environment, the financial circumstances of our families, our peer groups all affect the options we consider and the choices we make.

Often are future choices are influenced or restricted by our prior choices.

The notice that we are at birth destined to follow a predetermined path to a live path with predetermined outcomes is illogical and lacks evidence to support such a deterministic view.

The notion that we can influence our outcomes by our efforts, commitment, and our choices, is more plausible. The downside of accepting this perspective is that you can’t blame “fate” for outcomes you don’t like or goals you failed to achieve. Choice comes with responsibility.

We are born. We respond to all our circumstances. We become whoever we are. We continue to be influenced by our environments. And throughout all of this (and more) we make choices.

What is “responsibility?” I think it’s a judgment that people use to decide whether they will have sympathy for someone else or not. That person is taking charge (bully for them)! That person is letting their circumstances beat them down (tut, tut). We admire those who fight through adversity. We question the character of those who seem to use fate as an excuse to not try very hard (or at all).

It gets tricky when it’s not clear whether a person has any control over something or not. Many urge those to take responsibility for their mistakes, even when those mistakes were made under the influence of something they had no control over. Some say that just seeking to overcome your problem is enough responsibility. It shows you are trying.

So responsibility becomes and attitude. Is this person trying or not? And if they are trying, is it legitimate trying or fake trying?

Well, we can never know what is going on inside someone else’s head. Many of us are not inclined to give anyone else the benefit of the doubt. People make judgments about others all over the place.

I have to ask what the point is? How does our assessment of whether someone else is responsible or not change the way we treat them? I guess it comes into play when we are considering whether to give that person a second chance. Are they leaching off us, or not? Are they taking advantage of us? Are we enabling them to continue to be irresponsible?

I wonder how much it matters. If I give a beggar, does it matter if he uses it for food or liquor? Who am I to decide what his choices should be?

I think that people who say others are irresponsible are dodging responsibility themselves. Someone acts. I react. I make the choices. If I don’t like the choices someone else makes, I don’t need to judge him or call him names. I just choose my own course of action. If someone asks me why, I will tell him. If they want to point out a fact I don’t know, I may make a different choice.

We live in a marketplace of choices. There’s no need for name calling. No need to assign a balance between fate and responsibility. Just make choices. Make choices with all the integrity you have. And I’ll do the same. And if I think you are misleading me in your integrity, then I will act accordingly. I expect no less from you.

The past has a certain “trajectory”... an inertia. We’ve all been conditioned by our past, and all the statements about the limitations imposed by our DNA and culture are valid.

But, if you lay all that out on the table and acknowledge its existence, when you’re done taking inventory of everything from the past that is trying to steer the ship of life, you’re compelled to also recognize that there’s a strange sense of vertigo that won’t go away: what is it?

That sense of emptiness or uncertainty is the future in all its raw uncertainty. No matter how much we refine our predictions and account for our chains of causality, at the end of the day we always face a future which is unformed. And that lack of rigidity is the possibility of choice. It’s the opportunity to be responsible, to turn and face the unknown and say I will make a choice.

Responsibility is not a burden. It’s not blame or fault or credit—those are all judgments and manipulations, for the most part. Responsibility is freedom. Responsibility is the privilege of being a free agent in life; it’s the gift the future offers to those who are brave enough to stand up and take it.

For everybody else, life is just “fate”... the future is generated by the path-of-least-resistance caused by all the billiard balls on the table mentioned earlier. The future belongs to those with courage.

I don’t believe in fate or destiny. I think we are free and responsible for our own choices and actions. Some things are out of our control, but our response to them is not.