Do you believe in fate?

[tikay]

I'm a believer in science.  So no - fate would go against what I understand about maths and physics.

However, I do believe that some people appear to be inherently lucky, but that's something else completely.

thats just mathematically logical.. if everyone got the same amount of luck, thats when I'd think the universe was rigged

Is believing in fate not akin to believing the universe is rigged?

Yes, it does say that in my book.  It also goes against my understanding of quantum physics, and as such goes against my understanding of things.

The world of quantum physics - which I don't profess to have much knowledge about - is utterly fascinating. It takes "smallness" to another level entirely, gravity does not exist, all the laws of "normal" physics are broken, & the absolutely weirdest things happen, in a world where the "smallness" is quite beyond our imagination.

A gentleman named Bohr - a Dane - first coined the phrase "quantum leap", & eventually earned himself a Nobel Prize in the early 20's - a year after a certain Mr Einstein got his in fact.

Bohr hypothesised - correctly, it seems - that an electron moving between orbits could disappear from one orbit, & re-appear in another - without visiting, or passing through, the space between! Electrons are, apparently, at the same time, everywhere, & nowhere.

Did I learn all this at school? I wish! Throw away your trash fiction books, & buy a copy of  "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. (God Bless Thewy for buying me that one Christmas). It may be the best book ever written, & it is certainly one of the best. Read it & be awe-struck by the miracle of life & our Universe.

Then read "DNA" by James Watson, and see it explain how the complexity of plants & animals & human beings came to be - DNA is another subject where the degree of "smallness" is incomprehensible. The size of the human genome is 3,100 million base pairs. Impressive? Not if you are a humble onion, which has SIX TIMES more, at 18 million base pairs, a newt has TWENTY EIGHT times more, at 84 million, & that little amoeba you have all read about has - wait for it - 670,000 million Base Pairs.

Now that's fate. Or is it?

[M3boy]

Fate

A fascinating subject - and definately one to be discussed while drunk , just like "where did everything begin?" and "what happens if you keep travelling in one direction (space I mean), it must end somewhere", but I digress.

As for beleiving in Fate, yes I do.

How many times have you heard people go on about what would/wouldnt of happened to them if they did/didnt do something on a specific day?
ie, you happen to miss your flight, and the plane crashes?
or, you are delayed on a journey, or you get away earlier than planned, and by doing so, you miss an accident that you probably would of been involved in?
or, if I did not go into that club at that particular time, I would not have met her.

Hope I have made sense.

BTW, the "where did it all begin" is my favorite one, think I will start a thread, it truely is fascinating.

[madasahatstand]

interesting question that i think probably gets a different answer from me depending on how I'm feeling. Life is about opportunities that present themselves and what we make of them. the romantic in me would love to say i believe in fate 100% but the cynic would say, life is what we make it. one to ponder a little more me thinks:)

[Rainbow]

I'm a beleiver in fate, destiny whatever you want to call it but then I am a sad lonely old woman lol

[booder]

i believe in Father Christmas and i believe the children are our future.

[AndrewT]

What is fate?

Do those of you who say you believe in it honestly think you can't influence your own future?

And Tikay is right about quantum physics - it's totally bonkers and completely defies common sense. And yet has produced some of the most accurate results in the history of experimental science.

[DAN DAN]

I believe in fate.

Years ago I decided to return home early from a caravan hoilday with my parents, I don't know why but when I got home my brother was throwing a house party.  My ex boyfriend was there and we ended up going back out with each other.  That was 19 years ago and we are still together.  

I didn't say fate was good though.

Only kidding, been a brilliant 19 years.

[happybhoy]

I've always had a laymans interest in physics although I thought that the most interesting stuff was out in space and that the study of the wee stuff was a bit mundane until I read a bit about quantum physics. Have to say it is mind-blowing stuff (I posted a link in the youtube thread that has a good wee video on it). On a similar note there is a really good book written by a guy called Edwin A. Abbott in 1884 that does a great job of explaining the concept of dimensions in a way that makes it really easy to pick up. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Flatland worth a read if that kind of thing floats your boat.

[iceman]

i know its paradoxical but i believe that in the present you have freedom of choice but in the long run what will be will be.

[tikay]

I've always had a laymans interest in physics although I thought that the most interesting stuff was out in space and that the study of the wee stuff was a bit mundane until I read a bit about quantum physics. Have to say it is mind-blowing stuff (I posted a link in the youtube thread that has a good wee video on it). On a similar note there is a really good book written by a guy called Edwin A. Abbott in 1884 that does a great job of explaining the concept of dimensions in a way that makes it really easy to pick up. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Flatland worth a read if that kind of thing floats your boat.

If that was the "wave particle" Video, yes, it was superb, & mind-blowing.

[happybhoy]

I read somewhere that they ran two versions of the same experiment with the results running into 2 computers. On one computer they stored the results and on the other they were deleted as they arrived. It turns out that they got the interference pattern on the 'deleted' one and the single band on the other. Which as far as I can work out shows that the electron not only knows if it is being observed now but if it will have been observed in the future. Which just melts my noggin. Only thing is I've not got the greatest confidence in the source and I love to find some confirmation of whether this was true or not.

[Indestructable]

I do believe in fate, but wonder how much of my belief in fate means that things happen because of my belief. As an example I first met my wife something like ten years before we dated. At the time I bottled it and didn't ask her out.  ::)When we met again ten years later I thought it was fate and asked her out.

[Colchester Kev]

I believe in karma, you reap what you sew.

Fate ?   well pretty much yes, i believe that everything happens for a reason and this belief (as well as a belief in karma) has carried me through some turbulent times in my life.

[RED-DOG]

well don't let your karma run over his dogma.

[kinboshi]

well don't let your karma run over his dogma.

...it would be catastrophic.


Fate is intertwined with a belief that things are pre-destined.  For fate to be 'true', every small part, of every small system would need to know what the others were doing at every moment.  This is a ludicrous idea, and so I don't believe in fate.