^{Image taken from Pixabay}

Does fate exist? (And by extension, is free will an illusion?)

We often find the concept of fate being referenced not only in mythology, literature and fiction but in modern traditions and superstitions. I think everyone, or most, has at some point of their lives thrown dice and believed that they were lucky, or pulled out the "lucky" cards and thought "hey, I'm lucky today".

But is it really coming from something supernatural?

Let us do a mental exercise and consider time as the linear passing of one moment to the next.

moment A -> moment B -> moment C

A moment would be the minimal measurable unit of time, although science has not gotten to this point due to technological limitations (so it is impossible to know whether time is actually continual or whether there are minimal units that cannot be divided.

Let us then consider that time has a beginning, which is actually debated, but it is a necessary assumption for the mental exercise. We start from point A, the first point in time ever, the firstmost moment that precedes everything that exists. Let us imagine that it is one particle, like a rock being thrown onto the ground (which we know is going to fall due to logic).

"Circumstances" are the rules of this game

In moment A, there is a set of surrounding circumstances. Imagine the hand already at the point of just opening, the starting point of inevitability, where the rock has already come out of our control and will take a quick tour from our fingers, in an arc through the air and onto the ground. The circumstances of moment A are measurable and perfectly logical, like any moment, like any point in time, nothing strange about it.

Moment A would be the cause of moment B. And moment B would be the direct consequence. When we throw a rock, the rock travels inevitably toward the direction in which the forces around it push it. The inertia of our hand pushes it forward, then the wind (air friction) moves it around a little, gravity pulls it downward. The rock doesn't disappear from our hand and appears somewhere else, on the moon, on another galaxy. The rock follows a perfect route, as far as we know, undisturbed by magical elements. Moment B would be similarly consequential in this assumption. It would not be arbitrary but absolutely all of the events in moment B would be the result of the circumstances in moment A that led to them.

If we consider that from moment A until right now, no disturbances have occurred, then we can safely say that everything from moment A until now has been perfectly consequential and that right now we are living in the indirect results of the circumstances that were surrounding moment A.

^{Image taken from Pixabay}

What is fate?

The Oxford Dictionary defines fate as

the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power.

To talk about fate in this sense, we would have to talk about purpose. We would have to assume that in some way, external forces have influenced the results of the physical world. That would mean either one of two possibilities.

1. Someone/something has tampered with the line of moments from outside of time (or this being/thing is actually inside of time and modifies things in our physical plane)
2. Someone/something has purposefully set the course of time, like the hand that throws a rock, in a specific trajectory in which certain things are bound to happen, including your getting a hand full of aces in your poker game.

However, for the purpose of this exercise, let us define fate differently. Fate would be the way that moment C will be when we are at moment A and we observe the current circumstances. When we successfully throw a rock forward in the open air, when nothing and no one is around, we require no prophecy to know that it will continue travelling forward, slightly affected by the wind, which is a natural phenomenon as defined by the laws of nature and circumstance.

Time is invariable

If moment B is the direct consequence of moment A, then moment B is invariable. The complete circumstances are set to lead to a specific consequence. If at moment A, there is a point moving to the right at 1 place per second, and it's in place 1, and at moment B, the point is in place 2, then at moment C, there is no reason to believe that the point could be in place 11, and that place 3 would be skipped. Moment C would come to find the point right in place 3.

In the world that we live in, there are uncountable particles, not just one "point", but if we are to assume that the results of this mental exercise are accurate and correspond to the way in which reality works, then we could also safely assume that unless there is an external force at work, each moment will have a specific consequence and that the results of throwing good dice a few times in a row could be only attributed to physical causes and not to luck... unless, I repeat, there are external forces influencing the results, and this would be a case of superstition or faulty dice that have a tendency to fall on a certain number.

On another note, this assumption could also lead us to the conclusion that every moment is set in stone according to the circumstances surrounding moment A. If we are in moment C and everything has been logical and will remain logical, then moment E will come to pass and our point will be on place 5. These circumstances surround us every day and when we make choices, we are influenced by these circumstances. We are also part of this material plane and if every moment is a consequence of the previous one, then we can safely assume that each of our thoughts and brain processes is influenced by this timeline. This would mean that in 80 years, things are bound to be in a certain circumstance and nothing can be done about it because the rock has already been thrown and there is nothing to stop it from falling into the lake.

Do you believe in fate and/or luck?

Leave a vote and a comment with your thoughts!