Does "Everything Happen For a Reason?"

In my view non-determinism is built into existence at a fundamental sub-atomic level.

Add to this from a spiritual view, many religions - certainly Christian ones, say their diety gives you free choice - not believe in me or I'll spank you right away! You can't have truely free choice without no immediate consequences and random events.

Too in my point of view the Universe is like a guided experiment, where the guiding is very, very subtle. The God point of view I hold reflects a watching but nowadays seldom directly intervening diety.

The only reason things happen is because things happen.

and time keeps them all from happening at once

actually Farmerman, all things do happen at once.

Of course it does even if its "reasons" appear unreasonable. That's partly our motive for structuring alternative realities so that we can explain all the absurd, arbitrary and perverse realities to our satisfaction. It makes the irrational "appear " less wilful and therefore more justified, perhaps even more dignified. For those who rely on it or strain to believe, it's a "Godsend". We have generally used a major quantum of our brain power to accomplish our own brainwashing so all these sub-structures of "reality" are not to be sneezed at!

As for time, it's nature is that of an all-permeating molasses that catches flies until its flushed down a black hole.

I guess the question, Does everything happen for a reason?, refers both to causation and teleology. Is everything the result of something else and does every event reflect someone's intention or purpose? The former maybe; the second never. I think that Hume's critique of causation has shaken my belief in determinism. In a sense everything happens at once, if we treat time in the cosmos as not quite what we perceive as the movement of the clock. But even if we accept explanations based on causality that does not necessarily support a metaphysics of determinism; causation is only one of a number of ways of finding satisfactory (i.e., satisfying) answers to questions.

within 'chaos' there are 'actions', and 'reactions' directly related to one another; however, this fact does not, in any way modify the basic chaotic nature of reality.

things happen; for each occurrence, a 'reason' can be invented, defined, or supposed; and these reasons turn out, in the end to be just as random, as the events to which they are allocated.

[**** happens]

I think JLNobody has said it best so far. What, exactly, do we mean if we say, "Everything happens for a reason"? Of course everything happens for a reason! Something (the "reason") preceded the event and this predecessor was the "reason." You scalded your hand because you were careless with the boiling water. You tripped and broke a bone because some jerk had left something in your path for you to trip over.

But when one says, "Everything happens for a reason," they generally mean that the event will have consequences (usually seen as beneficial) of which we can have no notion at the time of the event. To prove their point, some people will find a way to demonstrate that the scalded hand or the broken leg was actually a good thing, because it -- let's say, for the sake of argument -- kept you from going to your place of employment at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

A bit far-fetched, I think, but you'd be amazed how many people believe this sort of thing.

Things happen, events occur.
Then we try to figure why.

We try to figure out why so either we can make them happen again. (What's in that reciepe?)

or not happen again
(Okay, so I don't have to pump the brakes to slow down.)

If something seems beyond our control,
humans apply several strategies for understanding.

We blame God.
We blame the Devil.
or We blame god and the devil.

Or we blame no one
not even ourselves which is good since things were beyond our control.

and accept that
things happen
not for a reason
but because
things happen.

Joe

and I will repeat one of my mantras.......the point is there is no point.

There's considerable wisdom in the saying "**** happens." And it is predictable that BoGoWo would invoke it.

Joe Nation's
"Things happen, events occur. Then we try to figure why"
brings to mind the fact that in one sense "causes" precede "effects"; they are the historical antecedents to what they produce. But in another sense the reverse is the case. When we see an event or condition and want to explain its existence, we analytically deem it an "effect" and THEN look for its "cause(s)." In terms of the sequence of analytical procedures the cause follows the effect.

Steven Hawkings pointed out ( I beleive it was in his "Brief History of Time) that
"event horizons" have the distincition of not only erasing matter but also of erasing antecedents of matter thereby eliminating causal relationships.

I think we are about to exhume Hume.

Wow, Dys, that Hawkings notion is very provocative. I see you are completely back in form.
What amazes me is that (I think that) repudiations of causation as a metaphysical fundamental of nature occur at the micro level of quantum physics. Hawkings operates (I think) at the macro level of astronomy-astrophysics. I may be making a false characterization here. I hope our scientifically more sophisticated members can set me straight on this.

JLN, it's my guess that Hawkings idea is most likely the single most provactive concept to hit the trail of modern physics and yet seems the most ignored. It certainly shakes the very foundation of science for the past 300 years. I admit I am totally agog with the implications.

Definitely. But did his recent retraction regarding the character of Black Holes have implications for this anti-determinist principle?

JLN I don't have an answer, I will have to ponder that.( as if I had any understanding)

Quite correct, and a point that bears repeating. Leibniz managed to combine the two with his "principle of sufficient reason," which ends up being the principle that "all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds" (that, of course, is Voltaire's take on it, but it's a fair summary).


I agree. We can accept causation without necessarily accepting that there is a reason behind every cause and effect (except, perhaps, the principle of causation itself).

For many years, I have held a radically different view on causality and the nature of time than, well, most everyone I know.

Let me see if I can sum it up in a short post.

To begin, the concept of time itself is clearly flawed. Our perceptions (which we know are limited) tell us flows in one direction only, which leads to the concept of causality; A -> B, and there's no going back.

I don't think it works that way. Rather, to me, there's only one moment of time, and everything that has ever happened or will happen is happening at the exact same time. The progress of our lives is a jump from one moment, to the next, to the next, et cetera.

The soul is the perception of this change of dimensional states. The concept of time is a measurement of lag between the changing from one state to another. We can see this lag, measure it, but not manipulate or capture it; our understanding of time is based upon a whole lot of assumptions.

Our conciousness comes from the fact that we have evolved enough to notice the lag, and to understand the past (former energy states) and predict the future (likely energy states based upon our current path.)

As limited beings, we have little ability to change our position in this moment other than by affecting those things in the three dimensions which we can easily percieve. True jumps, from one state to a completely (or even slightly, yet not three-dimensionally related) different state are rare but can account for the vast amount of unexplainable occurances in our history.

The next level of human evolution will be to control our position within these differening energy states without the neccessity of acting within three dimensions. It is a logical extension of the progression of life:

one-dimensional life doesn't exist too well.

Two-dimensional is extremely limited.(see a book titled 'flatland')

Three dimensional is where it is at for us and our ancestors.

The differentiation between a human and an animal is in the perception of the fourth dimension, time. We can see its effects but not move through it like we can our three dimensions.

Control of this fourth dimension, or control of ourselves moving through it, represents the next stage of our evolution.

I can't wait.

Cycloptichorn