Does destiny actually exist?

I hope not. It would be like somebody had written a play, and we were all just actors playing a part.

CognitoEr...

I don't know many, well actually I can't think of any, atheists who believe in destiny, or would even want such a thing to exist.

Is it possible to prove that future events are predictable?

We can assume from prior knowledge of human beings, that we are all terminal. We will all die. To some extent this is your ultimate destiny. The proof of your personal termination, can only occur when you are dead. It is possible to predict your termination, if you terminate yourself. However, you may not survive until that time, so your destiny is still uncertain until that time comes. Even then, you still have a choice regarding whether or not to prove or disprove destiny.

So you can state a destiny, which is proved when it comes true. However, you cannot in advance of that destiny, prove it. Unless it is trivial....

Considering proving the negative, that one does not have a particular destiny. One can never say with absolute certainty, unless the destiny is ridiculous, in which case it is trivial. It is all a probabilility, with some outcomes more probable than others.

The probability of death for example, can be computed to a fairly accurate degree by age, sex, country, smoker/non-smoker, etc.. This is done by aggregating historic experience, and allowing for future life expectancy improvements.

As we age, that probability increases. When you are extremely old, fragile, with a terminal illness, it will be possible to say with a large degree of accuracy that you will die soon.

However, that is not absolute proof. Absolute proof, only occurs when time has passed and you achieve the stated destiny.

So I guess the answer is patience.

I don't believe in destiny I believe the universe therefore earth and everything else is random and chaos if you believed in destiny than from the very first human your life would have been

destined to happen in fact every thing that has happened or would happen has already been planned or laid out. If some one chooses to jump out of a plane, which is not a normal human

event and someone packs the parachute wrong is that destiny or is it random and chaos or like John Denver flying experimental planes and hits a bird and crashes and dies is that destiny. No I think that many roads are presented to us and the one we CHOOSE is the out come in destiny I don't think there are choices- Destiny Is- so as long as we choose our actions I don't believe destiny rules. Now if some one is always acting like an idiot and does unsafe things to the degree of putting his life on the line you might say his choices are destined to get him killed so you might be able to make a prediction based on actions or choices people or nations or groups make

Destiny exists to a certain degree.

Not everything is fate, our decisions come into play as well. Destiny is the questions we're asked, and the final results we're given, but as conscious beings we get to choose the answer that leads to the result.

Ultimately it's impossible to prove or disprove. Personally I don't believe in it; but if you really do believe in it then you;ll behave in such a way as to make it come true. Was it destiny, or was it your directed action? I suppose it's six of one, half dozen of the other.

It exists at every moment. Your next decision/action is your destiny. Death is also everyone's destiny. But it's almost an afterthought, everything that has happened right up to this moment was destined to happen simply because that's how it panned out ...

I agree with cogito er.

I believe that everything that is will be.

I have suffered with a lot of Deja vue, especially as a child. I could see an event before and I knew how it would transpire both in words and actions.

My explanation for this is that the universe is like the engine of a car.

It explodes expands then contracts. It does this with the same universal consistancy.

Only time stands in the way of our lives being repeated like the metronome on a piano.

So I believe we have done evrything before a miriad of times and in exactly the same way.

It is not an idea I like but it does make sense.

Only if youre an atheist. The two ideologies go together.

Without God, there is no free will. We live in a deterministic universe. 'Atheistic science' equals 'calculable, predictable'. Therefore, all is pre-determined, therefore fate exists.

With God, however, free will enters play... this undermines the notion of fate.

This is why I argue that something as 'mystically sounding' as fate is actually quite atheistic, and something as chaotic as 'random chance' and 'unknown futures' is more religious.

The same is true with any mystical practice that utilizes or attempts to influence the physical world using physical mystical practices (ie not prayer), with the notion that these deterministic influences traverse reality through the transcendental spiritual. Newtonian physics but without the word 'physics'. Determinism without the science to back it. These notions are self-defeating, these mystical practices are bogus. They claim a spiritual exists (they need to for it to work), but the concept at the same time negates the prospect of a soul and of free-will. If my choice and my future is determined by the slitting of that chickens throat then I am merely a subject of a physical reality that makes no sense. Christianity is different... it doesnt attempt to manipulate the real world. The most Christians do is ask God for help, but by doing so they yield power to Him and not horde it for themselves as mystics do. Big difference in ideology there. Christians dont believe their prayer will directly influence reality, they have no false notions of that, they have hopes and faith, but no sense of power or authority. They dont turn to their clergy for help in reality, they turn to their God... unlike those who turn to their mystics.

In fact, read my blog article on this:

http://cogitoergocogitosum.wordpress.com/2009/05/3...

Destiny exists only in that we are all destined to die. What happens in between is the result of choice and circumstance.

Actually, we all are constantly living the the past moment. It take time for physical stimulus to reach our brain and be filtered, sorted, and recognized. What you experience as the present has already happened, so that event was your destiny.