Notes

I believe that rather than fate, we control our own destiny. I feel that I make decisions on my own and act on them by myself. In theory, I could suddenly burst out in laughter and I don't think that could really have been predetermined by larger forces, even speaking on a long-term scale, I don’t really believe that our future is predetermined by larger forces. I feel that all the small actions that we take and decide eventually lead up to a final outcome. One may argue that the small decisions we take do not affect our future and that probably is true, if you were only looking at just a couple of small decisions, however, look at those small decisions in quantity, and they add up and lead to more decisions and bigger changes like the butterfly effect in chaos theory.
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I was born into a Christian family so I went to church every Sunday with my parents. They had always taught me that God made a plan for me and that he made things happen, which I do believe. Even if this is true, I believe that the choices I make still affect what happens to me in life. For example, I could choose to do my homework or not do it, and that will either put me in a good or bad place in the future. Although it could’ve been predetermined that I would’ve chosen to do it, I still make that decision for myself, similar to how others choose what they do. I think it is a little bit of both, but the larger force just knows what is going to happen rather than exactly choosing what I do. I believe that there isn't a reason for everything, but there is a reason for some things. Thinking more literally, stuff happens for the purpose of something else. For example, a test would be to test our understanding of a certain subject.

After listening to others, I think that there is both fate and free will, but I can also factor in the factor of chance. In some situations out of your control, things could happen that could be purely by chance, or it could have been fated, but there would really be no way of truly knowing. In other situations that you can control, free will comes into play. The decisions you make and how you decide to look at and deal with the situation really affects the outcome of what will happen. Overall, I think it is a mixture of fate, chance, and free will, as some situations can be affected by your decisions while others may be out of your control.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I think that everything in the world is based on probabilities and no one knows what is going to happen in the future because there are infinite outcomes. There is a reasoning to everything that happens and it is just not predetermined. I do things because I want to and I am controlling myself to do so, not a larger force that is controlling me into their scenarios. For example, if I got a 50 on a test, it is not because I was going to get it no matter what. I got it because I did not study for the test and the outcome would have been different if I did study. I think fate was for things that they could not find a reason for something that happened or they used it as an excuse for bad things that happened to them.
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I think that fate exists. Im a religious believer but sometimes I also question the legitamacy of god and destiny. Its easy to say that everything is already planned, even when things are going horribly wrong. Free will could exist because people choose to do what they want and that leads to a consequence and math does support that but because of my religion I believe that fate exists. Anything that happens in life is destined to happen and just because its called fate doent mean it has to end good. People will say that it doent make sense for a higher power to kill humans beacsue of fate, that just doesnt make sense for someone all loving like God. IN the end I will never know the truth until I close my eyes forever.