Fate – Can I Escape It?

Spiritual Questions & Answers

Discovering inner health and transformation

fateAfter the terrorist explosion at Maalbeek Metro station in Brussels in March 2016, one person said he was going to stop using the underground railway and walk to work instead. However, others think in terms of fate. ‘What is meant to be, will be’. ‘My time will come when it comes.’ Do you think that things will probably happen no matter what you do and that fate will catch up with you in the end?

Alternatively, can you escape fate? Can it be cheated?

If you believe in fate, then you might believe what will happen to you is already written in the stars.

In some cultures in the world there seems to be more of a tendency to believe in fate. Ahsan Ul Haq Kayani is a senior patrolling officer with the national highways police in Pakistan. He did some research in three cities there, interviewing professional drivers, police officers, and policy makers. It became clear that, across the board, fatalism about death extends to fatalism about risky driving. For example, one police officer said, “If a disaster has to come in your life, you cannot escape, no matter what you do – even if a driver follows safety measures.”

Consequences of believing in fate

In some places, tragically there are downtrodden people who are defeatist for understandable reasons. They live in dire poverty, and lack opportunities to better themselves. Their situation reminds me of the laboratory research on dogs by Martin Seligman in the 1960’s at the University of Pennsylvania. Whatever the dogs did to escape their cages, they were punished with an electric shock, and so they became passive and gave up trying. Likewise, if oppressed people were to try to escape their dreadful circumstances only to be continually defeated, then, like the laboratory dogs, it would not be surprising that they might learn to feel helpless and passively resign themselves to their fate.

Usually, however, for most of us only some things in life turn out badly – perhaps you fail your exams, your boss at work is overcritical, or you catch a dangerous bug.

If you were to blame fate for misfortune you would see the future as inevitable and might actually give up studying, stop trying to work well, or no longer live in a hygienic manner. Nevertheless, in so doing, would you not be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy? Bringing about the very things, you do not want?

Fate and religion

Since the time of active belief in Roman, Greek and other mythologies, fate has often been thought of as divinely inspired.

It seems difficult to think about a God who can be all-powerful but who does not actually control everything that is going on in the world.

The Pew Foundation in 2012 asked Muslims in twenty-three countries ranging from Bosnia to Indonesia, “Do you believe: in predestination or fate?” and found widespread fatalism.

Over the years, there have been deadly stampedes and other crowd disasters during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet, each year thousands continue to make the journey. After a building crane fell into Mecca’s Grand Mosque in September 2015, killing 114 and injuring 394, the mosque’s Imam Abdul Rahman Al Sudais visited the injured and, as he met each one, told them, “This is the will of Allah.”

“Whatever man is or does and whatever happens to him is directly willed by Allah”(Raphael Patai, anthropologist referring to Muslim belief)

Many critics say that until the Saudi authorities do something the deaths are likely to continue. It seems to me they are using the excuse of fate for not taking responsibility.

We also find a similar idea of fate – what theologians call pre-destination – in some strands of Christianity.

Yet paradoxically, even when religion has this idea of fate, it is not thought to take away individual freedom to make personal choices. So, how could these two ideas – divine omnipotence and free will – be mutually compatible? Even today, this question is a matter of great study and interest.

Fate and free will

I think the teaching of Emanuel Swedenborg regarding the nature of God offers an answer. The all-powerful force behind the universe is said to so love us that we are allowed the freedom to think and be what we want. In other words, it is not in the divine nature of loving others to want to impose one’s will on them; but rather to permit us all to learn from our mistakes and freely choose our own character.

If there is freedom, things are not inevitable” (Emanuel Swedenborg)

I would suggest that if we did not have this inner freedom to choose, then we would be inhuman – mere robots – following our inbuilt software to obey the dictate of the engineer who designed us.

Swedenborg’s idea is that it is God’s priority is to work in a hidden way to provide us with what we deeply need for a peaceful and contented eternal life – wisdom, forgiveness, a kind generous heart etc. This happy fate is what God wants for all people. A lower priority is that we get what we physically need for pleasure during this temporary life on earth. Therefore, according to this doctrine, improvement to one’s inner life can only come when one freely chooses to respond positively to the divine leading.

If all this is true then it follows that the all-powerful God will not necessarily stop me being a victim of circumstances and human folly. But when evil things happen, it is not the will of God. God never wills bad things on anybody. Instead, God’s love wants us all to be inwardly happy.

My advice is do not be resigned to what you imagine is your earthly fate but trust in Divine Providence for your eventual destiny. Likewise, a common attitude seems to be that life is full of bad things and we just have to hope for the best and get on with it.

A person’s fate after death is determined by the kind of life he led in the world” (Emanuel Swedenborg)

Copyright 2016 Stephen Russell-Lacy
Author Heart, Head & Hands

http://www.spiritualquestions.org.uk/

Posted on21st June 2016CategoriesMeaning of life, Other aspects of meaningTags, ,  Leave a comment

Why do so many different religions exist in the world?

The clearer our picture of how to serve the neighbor, the closer to God we can become.

Q

Is there one “right” religion?

a

Yes, but it doesn’t exist simply with one group or one church. The right religion is simply this: to love our Creator and all the people He created. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37-40). In other words the whole point of religion is to learn to love and serve God and the neighbor. At their core, all religions come back to the same thing: love and serve God and the neighbor. That doesn’t mean all religions are equally true or good. Some religions seem to have a clearer understanding of how to love and serve God and the neighbor while some lead away from this principle. The clearer our picture of how to serve the Lord and neighbor are closer to God we can become.

Q

Can people from different religions go to heaven?

a

Getting to heaven isn’t simply a matter of having the right beliefs, or doing the right rituals, or calling the Divine by a specific name. You can’t get to heaven without doing what God wills. A person who professes belief in Jesus as Lord but breaks His commandments really isn’t a follower of Christ at all. Is a Muslim who refrains from murder and theft because they are sins against God any different from a Christian who refrains from murder and theft because they sins against God? One says “Allah” instead of “Lord,” but aren’t they both following the will of God, the Heavenly Father of all of us? Anyone who refrains from evil because it is against God and does good because it is from God is following the will of God and has the Kingdom of God within him.

Q

Why do many religions exist? Is it on purpose or an accident?

a

The different religions are based on the different responses people have to God over time. Even in these different responses, certain universal truths are common among them. Truth, by definition, comes from God. Jesus said, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). New Church theology teaches: “When a religion has been implanted in a nation, the Lord leads that nation according to the precepts and dogmas of its own religion. He has provided that there shall be in every religion precepts like those in the Ten Commandments…. The nation that regards these precepts as Divine and lives according to them from a religious motive is saved” (Divine Providence 254). Mixed in with those true teachings may be many false teachings. The point is that the Lord is present and leads all people through the true teachings of their religions.


https://newchurch.org/

Rev. Barry Halterman is the Religion Department Chair at the Academy of the New Church High School in Bryn Athyn, PA (www.ancss.org). He is also Assistant Pastor at New Church LIVE (www.newchurchlive.tv).

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