Fate

Today in my English class we read a student essay in which the writer stated that fate, or some sort of organized, divine plan, controls our lives. I was baffled by this essay. I know many people in the world find comfort in the idea of fate: that life brings certain people together for a reason, that all people have a destined path in life, and so on. But I find it to be wholly unsettling. It is impossible for fate to exist on the point that human beings have the ability to make decisions. We choose our own paths, we make our own way, and no God or spirit or divine plan can push us in a direction we don't want to go. And furthermore, there are no divine entities watching over us who have decided our fate even before we were born. Do you really think your God has time for all that? Or that he would even really care? Well, he probably wouldn't.

Although I am highly opposed to all religions, I do have to say that if I were to believe in anything, it would be in the religious philosophy of the French Enlightenment which described God as the watchmaker: he set it all into motion and we must carry out our lives from there. In that you have the comfort and the freedom, although I would suggest being an individual--its much more satisfying.