Destiny

Destiny

Destiny or Fate, predetermined course of events considered to be beyond human control. (Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009).

Destiny is the scheduled sequence of proceedings thought to be beyond human curb.

Fatalism believes that all events occur according to a fixed and inevitable destiny that individual will neither controls nor affects. According to fatalism, preceding eve nts have no causal connection with the events that follow. A fated event takes place not according to a natural law but in accordance with some mysterious decree issued by some mysterious power, perhaps ages before. Fatalism is a belief in a supernatural power that predetermines without recourse to natural order. Fatalism appeared among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans and today is particularly prevalent among Muslims.

Determinism, in its belief that every event has its determining conditions in its immediate antecedents, which may include the human will.

Epictetus was concerned chiefly with the problem of morality—that is, of defining good.  Humans are basically limited and irrational beings, but that the universe, ruled by God through pure reason, is perfect. Human beings can neither know nor control their destiny; they must cease striving for the attainment of worldly ends and instead calmly accept the fact of their own powerlessness before fate. The decisions of the Fates could not be altered, even by the gods.

The Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato maintained that people could will their own actions, but that those actions alone were truly free that accorded with the good or harmony of the whole. Thus, only a wise action is free. Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher, reinterpreted free will as self-determination, that is, insofar as a person fits into God’s nature and the world’s own nature. Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, believed that a person must be free because freedom is a necessary postulate of the moral consciousness.

Astrologers believe that the position of astronomical bodies at the exact moment of a person’s birth and the subsequent movements of the bodies reflect that person’s character and, therefore, his or her destiny. Scientists have long rejected the principles of astrology, but millions of people continue to believe in or practice it.

Astrologers create charts called horoscopes that map the position of astronomical bodies at certain times, such as when a person is born. A horoscope is illustrated by a circle, called the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the plane on which the Earth orbits around the Sun in a year. It is divided into twelve sections, called the signs of the Zodiac, which include Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.

Karma (Sanskrit for “action”), in Indian philosophy, the sum total of one's actions, good or bad. These actions are attached to the soul as it transmigrates and each new body (and each event experienced by that body) is determined by previous karma.

Religious Belief

Predestination, in Christian theology, the teaching that the eternal destiny of a person is predetermined by God's unchangeable decree. Predestination does not necessarily imply a denial of free will, however. Most exponents of the doctrine have maintained that it is only the individual's final destiny that is predetermined, not the individual's actions, which remain free.

Single predestination is the less severe form of the teaching. It is based on the experience of the presence of God and his love, and on the concurrent understanding that God grants the gift of his presence as an act of sheer grace. This point of view is implied only twice in the New Testament, in Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. ... And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30). These verses imply single predestination, because they concern only predestination to life with God.

Double predestination is a conclusion deduced from single predestination. If some are to enjoy God's presence by his eternal decree, others must then be eternally separated from God, also by his decree. Because salvation and glory are predestined, it follows that condemnation and destruction must also be predestined. The first theologian to enunciate a doctrine of double predestination was St. Augustine in the 5th century. He has not, however, had many successors. The best-known exponent of double predestination was French reformer John Calvin: “We call predestination God's eternal decree, by which he determined within himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others” (Institutes 3. 21. 5).

Judaism (Religion of the Jews) believes in that of the covenant (berith), or contractual agreement, between God and the Jewish people. According to tradition, the God of creation entered into a special relationship with the Jewish people at Sinai. They would acknowledge God as their sole ultimate king and legislator, agreeing to obey his laws; God, in turn, would acknowledge Israel as his particular people and be especially mindful of them.

Puritan theology (Church of England) asserts the basic sinfulness of humankind; but it also declares that by an eternal decree God has determined that some will be saved through the righteousness of Christ despite their sins. No one can be certain in this life what his or her eternal destiny will be.

Islamic Belief

Kismet, in Islam, fate or destiny. Kismet is a Turkish adaptation of the Arabic word gismah, meaning “portion,” “lot,” or “destiny.” Within the context of Islamic religious thought, the concept of kismet represents the will of Allah that governs the lives of Muslims. Individuals accept kismet because it is part of the divine plan. God of Islam had provided humanity with the means to know good from evil, One group of Muslim theologians maintained that because God is just, he creates only good, and therefore only humans can create evil. The group argued that God’s punishment of humans would be unjust because He himself created their evil deeds.

Muslim theologians also argue that no human act could occur if God does not will it, and that God's knowledge encompasses all that was, is, or will be. This view also maintains that it is God's will to create the power in humans to make free choices. God is therefore just to hold humans accountable for their actions.

Free Will, power or ability of the human mind to choose a course of action or make a decision without being subject to restraints imposed by antecedent causes, by necessity, or by divine predetermination.

Every action, or effect, must be preceded by a cause and must form a part of the unbroken chain of causation extending back to the First Cause, that is, God, or the Divine. An act of absolute free will on the part of a person or an animal is, however, an uncaused act outside the causal chain; to accept the possibility of an uncaused act negates such divine, rational order and makes the universe seem irrational. Viewed in this manner, this question has never been satisfactorily resolved.

Other religious belief

Divination, practice of attempting to acquire hidden knowledge and insight into events—past, present, and future—through the direct or indirect contact of human intelligence with the supernatural. The practice was closely allied with religion among pagan, Hebrew, and early Christian peoples.

Contact with the supernatural is usually sought through a psychic medium, a person supposedly endowed with supernormal receptivity. In direct divination, the medium acquires knowledge through direct contact with the unknown. The oracle, a medium or diviner who figured prominently in the beliefs of a number of ancient peoples, including those of Babylonia and Greece, typified the mediumistic method. Oracles employed various techniques in establishing contact with divinity. Some, such as the oracle at Delphi, passed into a trance and, in this condition, uttered divine messages. Others practiced oneiromancy, or divination by dreams, and necromancy, the art of conjuring up revelations from the souls of the dead. The direct method of divination is closely approximated in much of modern spiritualism.

Divination in China followed a different course. In the Shang dynasty, shoulder blades of oxen and the bottom shells of tortoises were inscribed and heated. A message was derived from the pattern of cracks formed across the inscription after heat was applied. The founder of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty is said to have established the traditional patterns of lines and added the judgments of their significance. His son, the duke of Zhou, is said to have composed the commentaries. The collected judgments are known as T'uan and the commentaries as Yao.

In the time of Confucius, additional texts, the Wings, were appended. The result was the text known as I Ching (Book of Changes). The interpretations found in the Wings are sometimes attributed to scholars of the Han dynasty.

The cosmological principle behind the I Ching is simply that of change. Change is the movement between the cosmic forces of yin and yang, as represented by the divided and undivided lines of the traditional patterns, the 8 trigrams, and the 64 hexagrams formed from them by casting lots. Three divided yin lines signify earth; three undivided yang lines signify heaven. The 64 hexagrams, therefore, represent all possible situations or changes in creation. Examination of the hexagrams will furnish a description of the universe at that particular moment in its endless process of change and will provide hints of its future course of development.

Fortune-Telling, practice of predicting the future through psychic means, such as the interpretation of signs or communication with supernatural forces.

Many people use astrology as a method of fortune-telling. Other methods include palmistry, the practice of interpreting the lines in hands; cartomancy, the prediction of the future using special cards such as tarot cards; and necromancy, in which people predict the future through communication with the spirits of dead people. Some methods of fortune-telling involve clairvoyance, the ability to perceive events or objects beyond the range of the senses.

"No man woman born, coward or brave can shun his destiny"