Is It Fate or Mere Chance?

FATE took the lives of many and spared others,” declared the International Herald Tribune. Last year, terrorist attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed almost 200 people and injured hundreds. However, “timing blessed the embassy’s most senior diplomats,” noted the newspaper.

These were spared because they were attending a meeting in an area of the building away from the blast. But a high embassy official, who would normally have attended but did not, was in an area closer to the explosion and was killed.

“Fate also dealt cruelly with Arlene Kirk,” stated the newspaper. When returning to Kenya from vacation, Arlene volunteered to give up her seat on the overbooked flight. Other passengers, however, volunteered their seats before her, allowing her to board the plane. As a result, she returned to work at the embassy the day of the blast and was killed.

Man is no stranger to calamity. Yet, explaining tragedy is never easy. Regularly, in accidents and catastrophes all over the world, some die while others survive. It is not just in times of disaster, however, that some wonder, ‘Why me?’ Even when it comes to the good things in life, some seem to have better chances than others. While for many life is a constant struggle, for others things seem to fit into place easily. Thus, you may ask, ‘Could it be that this was all somehow planned? Does fate control my life?’

Looking for Explanations

Some 3,000 years ago, a wise king observed unexpected happenings around him. He offered the following explanation for these events: “Time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11) Sometimes the unexpected happens. There is just no way of predicting it. Remarkable events, both good and bad, often come down to a matter of timing.

However, you may share the view of those who instead of explaining things as the product of chance see the hand of another force at work—fate. Belief in fate or destiny is one of the oldest and most widespread of man’s religious beliefs.a Professor François Jouan, director of the Center for Mythological Research at the University of Paris, says: “There is not an age or civilization that has not believed in some divine master of destinies . . . to explain all that is inexplicable in our existence.” That is why it is common to hear people say: “It was not his time to die” or, “That’s the way it was meant to be.” But what is fate?

Defining Fate

The English word “fate” comes from the Latin fatum, meaning “a prophetic declaration, an oracle, a divine determination.” While sometimes a random force is thought to determine the future in an unavoidable and inexplicable way, more often than not, this force is thought to be a god.

Historian of religion Helmer Ringgren explains: “An essential element in the religious attitude is the feeling that human destiny is not meaningless or fortuitous, but has its cause in a power to which will and intention may be attributed.” While some measure of intervention is often thought possible, many people see humans as relatively powerless pawns in a game beyond their control. Thus they ‘meet their fate.’

Theologians and philosophers have long grappled to explain fate. The Encyclopedia of Religion says: “The notion of fate, in whatever variation, language, or shade of meaning it occurs, always retains a basic element of mystery.” One thread running through the labyrinth of ideas, though, is the notion of a higher power controlling and directing man’s affairs. This force is thought to shape the lives of individuals and nations in advance, making the future just as inevitable as the past.

A Determining Factor

Does it make any difference whether you believe in fate? “The circumstances of men’s lives do much to determine their philosophy, but, conversely, their philosophy does much to determine their circumstances,” wrote English philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Indeed, belief in fate—whether or not there is such a thing—can determine how we act. Believing it to be the will of the gods, many passively accept their situation—however unjust or oppressive—as though it were their unchangeable lot in life. Thus, belief in fate undermines the notion of personal responsibility.

On the other hand, belief in destiny has motivated others in the opposite direction. For example, historians trace the growth of capitalism and the industrial revolution to a number of factors. Among them was the belief in predestination. Some Protestant religions taught that God predestines individuals for salvation. German sociologist Max Weber says: “The question, Am I one of the elect? must sooner or later have arisen for every believer.” Individuals sought to find out whether they had God’s blessing and were thus destined for salvation. Weber argued that they did this through their “worldly activity.” Success in business and the accumulation of wealth were seen as signs of God’s favor.

Belief in fate pushes some to take radical action. In the second world war, Japanese suicide pilots believed in kamikaze, or “divine wind.” The idea that the gods had a purpose and that it was possible to play a role in it added religious overtones to a grisly death. In the past decade, suicide bombers in the Middle East have often made headlines with their horrific attacks. Fatalism plays an important part in these “religiously inspired suicidal attacks,” notes one encyclopedia.

But why is belief in fate so widespread? A brief look at its origins will provide the answer.

[Footnote]

In Search of Man’s Destiny

WHY is belief in fate so widespread? Throughout the ages, man has sought to unravel life’s mysteries and to find some purpose in unfolding events. “It is here that the categories ‘god’, ‘destiny’, and ‘chance’ enter the scene, depending on whether the events are derived from a personal power, an impersonal order, or no order at all,” explains historian Helmer Ringgren. History is replete with beliefs, legends, and myths relating to fate and destiny.

Assyriologist Jean Bottéro says: “We are largely formed in all aspects of our culture by the Mesopotamian civilization,” adding that it is in ancient Mesopotamia or Babylonia that we find “the oldest perceptible reactions and reflections of mankind on the supernatural, the oldest identifiable religious structure.” It is also here that we find the origins of fate.

Fate’s Ancient Roots

Among the ancient ruins of Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, archaeologists have discovered some of the oldest writings known to man. Thousands of tablets written in cuneiform give us a clear picture of life in the ancient civilizations of Sumer and Akkad and in the famous city of Babylon. According to archaeologist Samuel N. Kramer, the Sumerians “were troubled by the problem of human suffering, particularly relative to its rather enigmatic causes.” Their quest for answers led them to the idea of fate.

In her book Babylon, archaeologist Joan Oates says that “each Babylonian had his own personal god or goddess.” The Babylonians believed that gods “shaped the destinies of all mankind, individually and collectively.” According to Kramer, the Sumerians believed that “the gods in control of the cosmos planned and instituted evil, falsehood and violence as part and parcel of civilization.” Belief in fate was widespread, and it was held in high esteem.

The Babylonians thought that it was possible to find out the gods’ plans through divination—“a technique of communication with the gods.” Divination involved trying to foretell the future by observing, deciphering, and interpreting items and events. Typically, dreams, animal behavior, and entrails were examined. (Compare Ezekiel 21:21; Daniel 2:1-4.) Unexpected or unusual happenings that were said to reveal the future were recorded on clay tablets.

According to French scholar of ancient civilizations Édouard Dhorme, “as far as we go back in Mesopotamian history, we find the soothsayer and the idea of divination.” Divination was an integral feature of life. Indeed, Professor Bottéro says that “everything could be considered as the possible object for examination and divinatory deduction . . . The entire material universe was taken as the evidence from which the future could in some way be extracted after a careful study.” The Mesopotamians were thus fervent practicers of astrology as a means to predict the future.—Compare Isaiah 47:13.

In addition, the Babylonians used dice or lots in divination. In her book Randomness, Deborah Bennett explains that these were to “eliminate the possibility of human manipulation and thereby to give the gods a clear channel through which to express their divine will.” However, the decisions of the gods were not considered to be inexorable. Help to avoid an evil fate could be had through an appeal to the gods.

Fate in Ancient Egypt

In the 15th century B.C.E., there was extensive contact between Babylonia and Egypt. Religious practices connected with fate were included in the cultural exchange that ensued. Why did the Egyptians accept belief in fate? According to John R. Baines, professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford, “much of [Egyptian] religion concerned attempts to comprehend and respond to the unpredictable and the unfortunate.”

Among the many Egyptian gods, Isis was described as the “mistress of life, ruler of fate and destiny.” The Egyptians also practiced divination and astrology. (Compare Isaiah 19:3.) One historian says: “Their ingenuity in questioning the gods was without limit.” Egypt, though, was not the only civilization to borrow from Babylon.

Greece and Rome

When it comes to religious matters, “ancient Greece did not escape the far-reaching but intense radiance of Babylonia,” notes Jean Bottéro. Professor Peter Green explains why belief in destiny was so popular in Greece: “In an uncertain world, where men were increasingly loath to be responsible for their own decisions, and indeed often felt themselves mere puppets, jerked from point to point by the requirements of a Fate as inscrutable as it was inflexible, divine oracular fiat [fate determined by the gods] was one way of having the future mapped out on the individual’s behalf. What was fixed by Fate could, given especial skills or insights, be predicted. It might not be what one wanted to hear; but forewarned at least was forearmed.”

In addition to reassuring individuals of the future, belief in fate also served more sinister purposes. The idea of fate helped to subdue the masses, and for that reason, according to historian F. H. Sandbach, “the belief that the world was entirely ruled by Providence would have an appeal to the ruling class of a ruling people.”

Why? Professor Green explains that this belief “was a built-in justification—moral, theological, semantic—for the social and political fixed order: it was the most powerful and subtle instrument of self-perpetuation that the Hellenistic ruling class ever conceived. The mere fact of anything happening meant that it had been fated to happen; and since nature was providentially disposed toward mankind, what was fated could not fail to be all for the best.” In reality, it provided “justification of ruthless self-interest.”

That fate was commonly accepted becomes evident from Greek literature. Among the ancient literary styles were the epic, the legend, and the tragedy—in which fate played a key part. In Greek mythology, man’s destiny was represented by three goddesses called the Moirai. Clotho was the spinner of the thread of life, Lachesis determined how long life was to be, and Atropos cut off life when the allocated time had expired. The Romans had a similar triad of gods whom they called the Parcae.

The Romans and the Greeks were eager to know what their supposed destiny was to be. Thus, they borrowed astrology and divination from Babylon and developed them further. The Romans called the events used to predict the future portenta, or signs. The messages these signs gave were called omina. By the third century B.C.E., astrology had become popular in Greece, and in 62 B.C.E., the earliest-known Greek horoscope appeared. So interested were the Greeks in astrology that according to Professor Gilbert Murray, astrology “fell upon the Hellenistic mind as a new disease falls upon some remote island people.”

In an attempt to know the future, the Greeks and the Romans used oracles or mediums widely. Through these the gods supposedly communicated with humans. (Compare Acts 16:16-19.) What was the effect of these beliefs? Philosopher Bertrand Russell said: “Fear took the place of hope; the purpose of life was rather to escape misfortune than to achieve any positive good.” Similar themes became the subject of controversy in Christendom.

“Christian” Debates About Fate

The early Christians lived in a culture strongly influenced by Greek and Roman ideas of destiny and fate. The so-called Church Fathers, for example, drew heavily upon the works of such Greek philosophers as Aristotle and Plato. One problem they tried to resolve was, How could an all-knowing, all-powerful God, “the One telling from the beginning the finale,” be reconciled with a God of love? (Isaiah 46:10; 1 John 4:8) If God knew the end from the beginning, they reasoned, then surely he foreknew man’s fall into sin and the disastrous consequences this would bring.

Origen, one of the most prolific of the early Christian writers, argued that one of the important elements to keep in mind was the notion of free will. “There are, indeed, innumerable passages in the Scriptures which establish with exceeding clearness the existence of freedom of will,” he wrote.

Origen said that ascribing to some exterior force the responsibility for our acts “is neither true nor in conformity with reason, but is the statement of him who wishes to destroy the conception of free will.” Origen argued that while God can foreknow events chronologically, this does not mean that he causes an event or that any necessity is placed upon it to happen. However, not all agreed.

An influential Church Father, Augustine (354-430 C.E.), complicated the argument by reducing the part that free will plays in events. Augustine gave predestination its theological basis in Christendom. His works, primarily De libero arbitrio, were central to discussions in the Middle Ages. The debate eventually reached a climax in the Reformation, with Christendom deeply divided over the issue of predestination.a

A Widespread Belief

Ideas about fate, though, are by no means limited to the Western world. Revealing their belief in destiny, many Muslims say “mektoub”—it is written—when faced with disaster. While it is true that many Oriental religions emphasize the role of the individual in personal destiny, there are, nevertheless, notes of fatalism in their teachings.

Karma in Hinduism and Buddhism, for example, is the inescapable destiny resulting from acts in a previous life. In China the earliest writings discovered are on tortoiseshells that were used in divination. Fate also formed part of the beliefs of indigenous peoples in the Americas. The Aztecs, for instance, devised divinatory calendars used to show the destiny of individuals. Fatalistic beliefs are also common in Africa.

The widespread acceptance of the concept of fate actually shows that man has a fundamental need to believe in a superior power. John B. Noss, in his book Man’s Religions, acknowledges: “All religions say in one way or another that man does not, and cannot, stand alone. He is vitally related with and even dependent on powers in Nature and Society external to himself. Dimly or clearly, he knows that he is not an independent center of force capable of standing apart from the world.”

In addition to the need to believe in God, we also have a fundamental need to understand what is happening around us. There is a difference, though, between recognizing an all-powerful Creator and believing that he immutably fixes our destiny. Just what role do we play in shaping our destiny? What role does God play?

You Can Choose Your Future

WHILE divination was considered “a major intellectual achievement throughout the ancient world,” it was “an art derided by the Hebrew prophets,” notes archaeologist Joan Oates. Why?

Despite being surrounded by nations with a fatalistic view of life, the ancient Israelites rejected the idea of a blind force shaping their lives. In the instructions given to the nation, God had said to them: “There should not be found in you . . . anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or . . . a professional foreteller of events.”—Deuteronomy 18:10, 11.

Without the idea of fate or the use of fortune-tellers, the Israelites could have confidence about the future. Explaining the reason for this, the French Catholic encyclopedia Théo states that the nation believed that “man and the world were not the prey of some blind force. God had a purpose for man.” What was this purpose?

Destiny and Free Will

God promised the Israelites peace and prosperity if they were obedient to his laws. (Leviticus 26:3-6) In addition, they looked to a Messiah who would establish righteous conditions on the earth. (Isaiah, chapter 11) However, the fact that God promised these things did not mean that individuals could just sit back and let things happen. On the contrary, they were told: “All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power.”—Ecclesiastes 9:10.

Central to this was the idea of free will. The Israelites were free to serve God and shape their future. God promised them: “It must occur that if you will without fail obey my commandments that I am commanding you today so as to love Jehovah your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, I also shall certainly give rain for your land at its appointed time, autumn rain and spring rain, and you will indeed gather your grain and your sweet wine and your oil.” (Deuteronomy 11:13, 14) God’s blessings came to Israel when they were obedient.

Just before they entered the land that he had promised them, God presented the nation of Israel with a choice: “See, I do put before you today life and good, and death and bad.” (Deuteronomy 30:15) Each person’s future was dependent on his own actions and decisions. Serving God meant life and blessings, whereas refusal to do so meant hardship. But what about today?

Cause and Effect

We are bound by a number of natural laws that have been put in place for our good. One of these is the law of cause and effect, or, as the Bible expresses it, “Whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) Once we recognize this principle, it is possible to consider the probability of certain future events.

If we drive recklessly at high speed, we are more likely to have an accident than if we drive cautiously. If we smoke, it is more likely that we will develop cancer than if we don’t smoke. Granted, events like the terrorist attacks mentioned in the opening article of this series seem unlikely to happen to us, and calculating their probability would be pointless. However, resorting to the idea of fate will get us nowhere. It does not illuminate the present or the future. Belief in a falsehood provides no real reassurance for the future. Neither does seeing God’s hand in every event.

What Will Your Future Be?

Our future has not been written down in advance but is shaped by the present. Even though life is a gift from God, the Bible clearly indicates that we have a key role to play in deciding our present and our future. The fact that we have the choice either to make God happy or, on the contrary, to make him sad shows that God has given us a measure of control over our lives.—Genesis 6:6; Psalm 78:40; Proverbs 27:11.

Additionally, the Holy Scriptures repeatedly emphasize that our future is linked to our endurance and our life course, which would have little meaning if things were already predestined. (Matthew 24:13; Luke 10:25-28) If, then, we choose to be obedient and faithful to God, what future can we expect?

The Bible reveals that mankind has a very bright future. The earth will be transformed into a paradise where peace and security will reign. (Psalm 37:9-11; 46:8, 9) That future is certain because the almighty Creator will fulfill his promises. (Isaiah 55:11) But our being blessed with life in Paradise does not depend on fate; it is to be enjoyed as a result of our obediently doing God’s will at this time. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8; Revelation 7:14, 15) God has given us free will and encourages us: “Choose life in order that you may keep alive.” (Deuteronomy 30:19) What will your choice be? Rather than being left to fate, your future is in your hands.