I used to think that life had a plan for me.. until

[gospurs]

I realized:
Life had to be planned BY me.
Which mindset are you?
Does some deity determine what our lives will be like?
Or are We our own gods that can determine and create what our lives and world will be like?
Me?-<[¥]>--I believe I am ultimately the only one responsible for my life. I dont need to blame the devil or praise the god when good/bad things occur in my life.
(Would you believe i got that opening quote from a rap song? Then he says- "you see thats the key, i only deal in what i can see. Cuz over history mystery brought us nothing but misery..")

[theophilus]

Both are true; God plans our lives and we decide what our lives will be like. God determines the environment into which we will be born and what our physical and mental abilities we are born with but we are constantly making decisions as to how we will act and we are affected by the outcome of those decisions.

[Milian]

I don't believe in a God, but I do believe that there are an infinite number of set paths for me. However, I choose which path I am to follow by the choices I make in life.

[gospurs]

There is nothing of which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.
-Soren Kierkegaard

[gospurs]

I think theists believe - life (or God) has a plan for me, and that is a big factor of why the world is the way it is. Whatever happens is gods will or god works in mysterious ways. If more people believed they possessed the "godly" power within them to create or shape the world around them, we wouldnt put up with so much misery, suffering, and injustice. Of course another big factor would also be diminishing greed and selfishness which is so prevalent in human nature, but that is a whole other debate...

[Jack]

To paraphrase a comment I've seen on the Internet, even those who firmly believe everything that happens is a part of god's plan for their lives look both ways before crossing the street.

[Affluence]

I realized:
Life had to be planned BY me.
Which mindset are you?
Does some deity determine what our lives will be like?
Or are We our own gods that can determine and create what our lives and world will be like?
Me?-<[¥]>--I believe I am ultimately the only one responsible for my life. I dont need to blame the devil or praise the god when good/bad things occur in my life.
(Would you believe i got that opening quote from a rap song? Then he says- "you see thats the key, i only deal in what i can see. Cuz over history mystery brought us nothing but misery..")

I agree with Theophilus partly:

I believe in destiny. God knows our future. Our future is written in the stars. Our path is set but not in stone; instead the future is malleable.

I believe in freewill and choices. As we walk along the way of our destiny we make choices that change outcomes of the future. Some times we get warnings so that we can change our futures, but sometimes we get good advise not taken and we dont change when we could.

When our destiny and freewill(choices) meet, that creates our future. You can say that we are co-creators with God. Praise the Lord!

sincerely, Affluence8

[Affluence]

Oh and the past, like the future is not set either. It can change. The history books are rewritten every a people change their beliefs and understandings. - Godric. Peace.

[xx_mortekai_xx]

I agree with Theophilus partly:

I believe in destiny. God knows our future. Our future is written in the stars. Our path is set but not in stone; instead the future is malleable.

I believe in freewill and choices. As we walk along the way of our destiny we make choices that change outcomes of the future. Some times we get warnings so that we can change our futures, but sometimes we get good advise not taken and we dont change when we could.

When our destiny and freewill(choices) meet, that creates our future. You can say that we are co-creators with God. Praise the Lord!

sincerely, Affluence8

What, exactly, is free will?

Oh and the past, like the future is not set either. It can change. The history books are rewritten every a people change their beliefs and understandings. - Godric. Peace.

The past doesnt change. Only our stories about the past do. Our stories about the past changing doesnt actually correspond to an actual change in reality.

I think theists believe - life (or God) has a plan for me, and that is a big factor of why the world is the way it is. Whatever happens is gods will or god works in mysterious ways. If more people believed they possessed the "godly" power within them to create or shape the world around them, we wouldnt put up with so much misery, suffering, and injustice. Of course another big factor would also be diminishing greed and selfishness which is so prevalent in human nature, but that is a whole other debate...

I think you are correct, which is why some of them pray when a terminal illness hits them.

The point of view of those of us who do not buy into some controlling father figure in the sky realize that we control our own "destiny". We make the choices that make our lives better or worse, not some god.

[iolo]

We do what we do, influenced by environment and genetics, but we are entirely free to make up reasons for what we have done afterwards, including a deterministic or what-the-hell - -do-as-you-please God?

[grandpa]

We do what we do, influenced by environment and genetics,
but we are entirely free to make up reasons for
what we have done afterwards, including a deterministic
or what-the-hell - -do-as-you-please God?

There is simple, very general proof of this: Quite often what we are attempting to do is not what we are doing. As one gradually learns to grow up, part of the process is seeking reasons for what people do.

In a discussion, a person either wants to reply to this objection or that, or they wish to end the conversation. That's not very deterministic, either. I think "determinism" is too limited and defined a concept to cope with greater reality.

Determinism suggests, to me, something absolutist. Even if choice is considered an illusion, the very perception of it's being illusory would be a choice that can further guide human actions and beliefs.

For me, determinism isn't entirely different from the concept of Hell, which itself has countless interpretations despite being so final and fatalistic:
"...According to Emanuel Swedenborg’s Second Coming Christian revelation, hell exists
because evil people want it. They, not
God, introduced evil to the human race.
In 'Devaduta Sutta', the 130th discourse of the Majjhima Nikaya,
Buddha teaches about the hell in vivid detail. Buddhism teaches
that there are five (sometimes six) realms of rebirth, which can
then be further subdivided into degrees of agony or pleasure. Of
these realms, the hell realms, or Naraka, is the lowest realm of
rebirth...," etc.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.f...86ad24d1?hl=en

These are all beliefs, and I say we should not resign ourselves to them completely. As a rule of thumb, I would rather rationalize on my feet. Even if it proves messy at times, it prevents me from being locked into any one idea and its own hells.

Grandpa h.

[iolo]

Faced with all which, we end up with some version of Buddhism, I think, though it is a very 'Western' and non-religious one. I tend to think the capitalist illusion makes life itself hell.