A recent visit to a fellow blogger’s site which featured the statement above prompted me to express my response to it, and to address the role of destiny and fate. They aren’t interchangeable terms in my view, and while I understand why it may be comforting to suppose that there is an underlying order to everything in the physical universe, chaos theory posits a degree of randomness that’s hard to ignore.
We all would like to think that there is some good cause for everything that happens in the world, especially for what might happen to us personally in our own lives, but the truth is that sometimes things happen TO us or AROUND us, and sometimes things happen BECAUSE of us or our actions or inactions. In many instances, there may be an EXPLANATION for what happens. There may be causes we can identify for our suffering, just as there are causes for our success. There may be a way to figure out why CERTAIN things come about, but just as often, we may not be ABLE to discern a cause or source or rationale for the events that take place in our life experiences. Such blanket expressions like, “everything happens for a reason,” are not particularly useful nor do they make our lives seem any easier in the face of challenges or troubles.
We cannot control what happens TO us many times, but we can often decide how we are going to act as a RESULT of what happens. We can take whatever talents we manage to acquire and SQUANDER them, or we can strive to improve them and put them to good use. Even when doing so, we may not succeed at what we are striving to accomplish, but life isn’t just about RESULTS; it’s also about the journey itself. We may or may not become successful no matter what happens to us or because of us, but if we want to truly make a deliberate and important contribution to the OUTCOME of our efforts, we must apply whatever resources we can muster and CHOOSE our path when we can, and follow wherever it leads us. Destiny is something we can choose to do or to attempt to do, but we can also ignore it or abandon it.
When we FAIL to choose, or fail to TRY, or fail to act when we should, that’s when fate takes over. What we work toward to the best of our ability is our destiny, fulfilled or not, and we have to acknowledge that our participation is essential if we truly seek to achieve our destiny. Whatever happens will have some sort of explanation ultimately, but the outcome may NOT be for any particular reason, or it may have AS a reason, our determination to achieve it. It’s really up to us.
John's Consciousness 
Very interesting read John, thank you.
Thanks for your visit, Wendi. There are times when certain ideas just cry out for a response, and I prefer to examine ideas in a more balanced way.
Yes, I agree with you. I do not believe there is any “grand plan” or “grand planner”. As you know I have increasingly come to hope that whatever the vagaries of the complex adaptive (and hence chaotic) systems in which we live, we will increasingly have the power and opportunity to increase our control over the physical universe and our own minds and bodies.
Far from assuming that everything happens for a reason, I would argue that we need to make it happen. Then there would indeed be a reason.
I do not think I have ever been a true nihilist or pessimist despite the moods which I sometimes find myself in. Far from it, I am optimistic that in time, intelligence and consciousness will rise to unimaginable heights.
That will not happen however by mere acceptance of the status quo. And certainly not by ascribing a mysterious and unexplained reason for whatever the universe throws at us.