Philosophy on life - do things really happen for a reason?

[MadImmortalMan]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

[Valmy]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

Eh she is probably just saying that to avoid crushing depression if she is perpetually in financial trouble.

[The Brain]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

You're on a mission from God?

[Razgovory]

Though, when us strident atheists say that something happens for a reason that reason is usually stuff like gravity or economics or psychology not karma or the will of god.

It depresses me that Atheists believe in wacky pseudoscience like Psychology and Economics.

Not me.  I use it against them on a regular basis.

[merithyn]

You sound like you cant see a difference between "shit that happens" and "why stuff happens". There are lots of things in your life that you have no control over, that car coming down the road when you want to cross for example. I have no control over it, what I do have control over is when I choose to cross the road and if I choose to look both ways before doing so.

The car's movements have no meaning or purpose other than the meaning and purpose imbued into it by the driver. The universe isn't telling you anything, the universe isn't a person with a mind or anything like that.

I don't have control over the car, but I do have control over if I get hit by it or not.

But what about the things that you have no control over. Things like the death of a child, to go with the earlier example, or an illness.

[PDH]

You never hear "congrats on the raise, it was meant to be" because for the good stuff people believe they had a hand in it.

Classic anthropology about magic.  It is a way of controlling the uncontrollable.

[Razgovory]

You never hear "congrats on the raise, it was meant to be" because for the good stuff people believe they had a hand in it.

Classic anthropology about magic.  It is a way of controlling the uncontrollable.

It goes deeper then that.  People who don't believe in magic or gods still think they control the outcome of events at an unconscious level.

[merithyn]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

Reminds me of the joke of the old woman and the flood.

A river is overflowing its levees and flooding a neighborhood. An old woman is sitting on her front porch, watching the water rise when a neighbor comes by in his car and tells her she oughta' evacuate.

"Oh, the Lord will provide!" she responds, and the neighbors give up and move on.

The water continues to rise and the old woman goes up to her second floor, sitting at the window, the water lapping at the siding a couple of feet below the window sill. Two firefighters in a boat come by and beg the woman to get in the boat so that they can get her to safety.

"Oh, the Lord will provide!" she responds, and the firefighters give up and move on.

The water continues to rise and the old woman climbs up to the top of her roof where the National Guard flies over her with a helicopter. A soldier climbs down the ladder to save her, but the old woman refuses to leave. "The Lord will provide!" she says, and after a while, for his own safety, the soldier has to leave the woman behind to save himself.

The old woman, of course, dies, and when she arrives at the Pearly Gates, she cries to God, "Why didn't you provide?!" To which God replied, "What are you talking about, woman? I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter! What more did you want from me?!"

[Viking]

But what about the things that you have no control over. Things like the death of a child, to go with the earlier example, or an illness.

First of all, those things happen for real reasons. Illnesses are not random, they have causes. If you are facing an issue you cannot prevent or mitigate then you have control over how you deal with the loss. There is still no meaning or reason here other than the strictly material causes and the meaning you put on those causes and effects. If it is too late to stop the car or get out of it's way appealing to god isn't going to do any good either.

[PDH]

You never hear "congrats on the raise, it was meant to be" because for the good stuff people believe they had a hand in it.

Classic anthropology about magic.  It is a way of controlling the uncontrollable.

It goes deeper then that.  People who don't believe in magic or gods still think they control the outcome of events at an unconscious level.

Many anthropologists say that everyone acts out magical ritual like that, even those who don't believe in magic per se.

[Malthus]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

Well, God did provide.

[katmai]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

See, she had you for a reason.

[Phillip V]

I strongly avoid stock responses like "everything's gonna be alright" or "it was meant to be".

[Valmy]

My mom pulls that god will provide shit all the time. Every time she gets in a financial mess, which is always, she absolves herself of any responsibility and says she's trusting god to provide. God usually "provides" by someone stepping in and saving her ass. Used to be her dad. Now it's usually me.

See, she had you for a reason.

[Malthus]

Reminds me of a story about a monk who had a beautiful and valuable ceramic tea pot. One day, a young novice was playing with the set and broke it.

He went to the monk and asked "why do people have to die?"

Monk replied with a spiel about how everything happens for a purpose, and has an allotted time; when it is time to die, you must die, and God has reasons for it - quoting from Ecclesiasties and the Book of Job.

The novice shook the fragments of the tea pot out of his sleeve and said "look master; it was the tea pot's time to die".