"Everything happens for a reason"

please argue for or against

• For = arguing for determinism Against = arguing for free-will

• "Everything happens for a reason." That's what people say when they don't have the time, motivation, or interest in listening, sympathizing, and being of comfort. I say it often.

• Look up Babi Yar and get back to me with a reason.

• It's the dumbest thing anyone can say. For the nonreligious person, it makes no sense, because who is causing and controling these things to happen? For the religious person, how does this position reconcile itself with free will? If everything happens for a reason, why have faith in God - afterall, if lose your faith, that happened for a reason. Basically, if anyone tells you that, it's best to just call them out on their bullshit.

• sometimes the reason can be that you're an idiot who makes stupid choices.

• It's okay to say it after a plane crash when everyone around the survivor gets killed and there is no explaining it, or after something else unfair occurs for no apparent reason, but I hate hearing it from someone who has cheated me out of something and is making excuses.

• No, it doesn't. You are the "reason" for your choices. When the world explodes, who will care about reason?

• There are some people out there who are arrogant enough to think that "reason" was religiously/spirtually based. No, you just got a raw-deal. Go ask a still-born baby about everything happening for a reason.

• There are no coincidences. They're all planned unbeknownst to us.

• I think it's something people say to keep their spirits up when faced with a loss or disappointment.

• What R5 said is true when people use it when talking about their own lives. They don't want to own up to bad choices they've made.

• R2: Absolutely. It's an incredibly dismissive response in the same category as "it's going to be OK."

• My father says this. And then he follows it up with "And this too shall pass."

• The saying that everything happens for a reason is the modern, New Age version of the old religious saying: “It’s God’s will.” The two sayings have the same problem—the complete lack of evidence that they’re true. Not only is there no good evidence that God exists, we have no way of knowing what it is that he (or she) wanted to happen, other than that it actually did happen.

  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201002/does-everything-happen-reason-0

• I think we make our decisions from early on till now based on environmental & genetic factors which comingle with personality issues and disorders. Poor decision making is a factor for many who are incapable of taking personal responsibility for their lives. Children don't understand the correlation between their decisions to a degree and actions, but by the time one is an adult, as much as you can control in your environment and your own reactions one needs to be completely responsible for all of the actions and reactions that you have.

• Thank you OP for a thread no males give two shits about.

• It's supposed to make you feel better but it really doesn't. Just a facile platitude but hey, at least they care enough to try. People have said this to in my darkest days and it wasn't true and didn't make me feel better. When something horrible happens in your life, you're inclined to find the universe chaotic, nonsensical and brutal.

• Phrase used by people who say "I'm not religious, but I am spiritual". They were big into those inspirational framed photos with words like "Passion", "Teamwork", "Success". They consider people like Chris Rock and P!NK much too controversial and edgy to listen to. At night, in private, they cry a lot, but have their happy mask on by morning.

• It's a phrase moron Christians use to explain why they can't take responsibility for the shit that happens when they make stupid decisions. Always counter with: And I believe there is no reason for anything that happens at all.

  This%20will%20confuse%20them%20for%20a%20minute

• Most people use it to imply that there is some sort of justice in seemingly random things. It is always said to explain troubling/ upsetting things, as if there is a divine plan and it's for a greater good. The phrase as it is used, and mindset behind it does not indicate belief in determinism at all. A person may come to a deeper self awareness and a perspective that results in a much happier life after having a nervous breakdown. It's drivel to say that the nervous breakdown happened 'for a reason' implying that the reason was the outcome. A bit like saying that the future affects the past.

• It's one of those beautiful phrases that doesn't really say anything but the painfully obvious.

• I keep telling myself that, but no reason seems to be forthcoming.

  Cheryl

• R18: Read somewhere recently that saying you're spiritual and not religious is just myth replacement.

• A Coincidence is a small miracle given by God.

• It can absolve you from any responsibility (fate did it, not you) for your own misfortune or prevents you from having the courage to reconsider a doomed to fail action. It also makes a great passive agressive statement to shut other people up when they whine about their bad luck.

• Sometimes people mean it literally. More often, people say it merely as a palliative, a way to keep themselves or others cheerful.

• someone here has it in for christians. it is safe to say that all major religions attract those who can't think for themselves. sociopaths need behavioral guides to function in society.

• Technically, yes. Mass casualties from an earthquake or Tsunami are caused by natural disasters that man cannot control. Genocides are caused by political powers that cannot be controlled. Plane crashes are usually caused by mechanaical and/or human error. Mass murders, child abduction and rapes are caused by sociopaths that society can't control. But for anyone to think that God or a higher power had anything to do with predetermining anything they are out of their fucking minds. Bad shit happens every day. Deal with it.

• Yes, OP. Yes it does.

  Darfur%20orphans

• It's a bullshit response I hate to hear. It means nothing.

• Stupid watered down Christian bullshit. Only morons say this.