HUMAN BEINGS HAVE LONG ASCRIBED TO FATE, destiny or even God's will problems they felt powerless to resist, resigning themselves to these perceived forces. The ancient Greeks envisioned three elderly goddesses-the Fates-who controlled people's lives. The goddess Clotho determined birth, spinning the thread of human life; Lachesis dispensed that thread, steering the path a person would follow in life; and Atropos cut the thread thus determining an individual's moment of death.
This attitude-that all in life is predetermined or inalterable-is not limited to people of old; it exerts an influence on the hearts and minds of many living today. Expressing frustration over this tendency, British author and essayist George Orwell wrote: "For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle . . . he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him."
The idea that something other than ourselves controls our destiny can in one sense be seen as a form of avoidance-a rationalization to escape facing and challenging real problems and suffering. It may also be an expression of a deep, subconscious sense of helplessness.
I'd like to hear your thoughts or insights on the nature(reality) of life on sufferings, destiny or fate. What causes human sufferings? what is destiny? I think this would be an important questions to each one of us whether u believe in God or not, theist or atheist.
This attitude-that all in life is predetermined or inalterable-is not limited to people of old; it exerts an influence on the hearts and minds of many living today. Expressing frustration over this tendency, British author and essayist George Orwell wrote: "For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle . . . he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him."
The idea that something other than ourselves controls our destiny can in one sense be seen as a form of avoidance-a rationalization to escape facing and challenging real problems and suffering. It may also be an expression of a deep, subconscious sense of helplessness.
I'd like to hear your thoughts or insights on the nature(reality) of life on sufferings, destiny or fate. What causes human sufferings? what is destiny? I think this would be an important questions to each one of us whether u believe in God or not, theist or atheist.