i am going to start by DESTROYING a quote i HATE: "everything happens for a reason." oh man does that line irritate me. everything does NOT happen for some (god controlled) reason. however, there is an explanation for everything; whether YOU have the capability to determine that explanation is another story. here is a great concept that EVERYONE SHOULD THINK OF INSTEAD OF THE ABOVE QUOTE: butterfly effect: the notion that a butterfly stirring the air today in Peking can transform storm systems next month in New York. here's my point: the world is a big, giant, chaotic MESS. you can make decisions, but even you DO NOT have total control over your own life. yes, some people are smarter than others, some people make better choices, but even they do not have complete control. if you think what i say is not true, this is for you: (i could start way before this, but i have to start somewhere) my grandparents existed. my parents exist. i am born. i have an interest in trading. i find elitetrader.com. i become a member. i decide to make this post. someone reads it. because they read it, their car trip today took place 3 minutes later than it would have if i did not make this post. the person causes a car accident in new york and kills a man and woman vacationing from china. their child's life is changed forever. there are many other repercussions of this event. although me typing a simple message like this was not the sole cause, it did play a role. of all people, you TRADERS should know what i mean. although you think you're making a good trade, you know it can be ruined by one person out there in the world effecting the markets. even though you can make decisions, you still can not completely control your destiny. you may not want to get into a car accident, so you don't drive a car. you may not even leave your house. but then an airplane could fall out of the sky and land on you. do not get me wrong, your life is not totally out of your hands--but don't think it totally IS either. and don't say, "everything happens for a reason." NO, IT DOES NOT, PERIOD. F. P.
This is actually one of the quotes that doesn't irk me. It's a useful little thing to say to yourself, especially when things seem to be going against you for the moment. It's a reminder of the precise point you make: that you cannot be in total, or even most of the time major control of what happens to you. "Everything happens for a reason" is simply useful to point out to ourselves that being in total control is probably not a thing that is usually necessary, and maybe more often than not would be more damaging than they way things are, because if we were in total control we would make lots of decisions that would not turn out as well as things can turn out if we just let events flow. The word Fortune is interesting, because it can mean Luck, Wealth, Destiny, Fate. "Everything happens for a reason" is just an approach to embracing the notion of Fortune. You take this phrase to mean that there is a set Destiny to everything. But you could take it to be about Luck, rather than Destiny. Which may not be so very different, in the same way that the word Fortune can encompass them both. When things seem to be going against you, and you feel like you're losing patience, some greater good may result from these events. It's to remind yourself of this that you might want to murmur to yourself "everything happens for a reason".
LiverNoMore, you seem to be a good thinker. you've made a bunch of posts recently in chit chat that i like. the problem i have with the "everything happens for a reason" quote is this: so many times i'll see someone on tv. something bad happened to them. say they lost their arms in a car accident. someone might ask them, "how do you go on like this?" many people will say, "i believe everything happens for a reason." then they follow it up with something like, "i believe god is with me and he made this happen for me to do blah blah." the real explanation is..... for whatever reasons, a car accident happened. when things are chaotic, good and bad things can happen to people for no good reason. well this person was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and something bad happened to them. some god did not set up the chain of events for him to lose his arms so he could then go on to serve some bigger purpose. furthermore, this also annoys me: if i was a firefighter and i rescued someone's child, they'd probably go on tv and thank god. don't thank god. he had nothing to do with it. thank me. thank me for risking my life. i could have died trying to save your kid. people should realize the real explanations for why things happen. too many people are thanking a fake god for things. if a doctor saves your life, thank HIM. don't thank a fake god.
Well those religious people just use the word God in the place of Fortune, then they go believing in their notions of what, and usually who, God is. I think it's that which irks you about this phrase. But you could take pretty much any phrase spoken by those simpletons, and find it becomes distasteful to you. I find, for instance, "God Bless America" to be particularly annoying, especially when it is used to promote military aggression which is killing some very helpless and innocent people whose only fault is to have been in a country other than the United States. p.s. it's natural that these are usually the same people using this phrase in this way. Patriotism and Dimwitted religious attitudes are products of the same simpleton mentality.
Isn't "everything happens for a reason" the same as "there is a reason for everything that happens"? If so, doesn't it stand to reason )) that there always is a reason why something occurs? Eg, the plate smashed because somebody dropped it? Surely we can't have effects without causes? (Or can we?) Perhaps the people saying "everything happens for a reason" (the ones that irk Fruity) should start saying "everything happens for a purpose" instead; or to put it in the above form, "there is a purpose behind things that occur". In any case, I would have to side with Liver here. Whether or not there is some great cosmic purpose to the events that occur in our lives -- and it certainly cannot be proven that there isn't -- I would ask, what harm is there believing that there is[such purpose]? Does it not help a person with the inevitable struggles of life to think that somehow, somewhere, sometime his life will be enhanced by the setback he experiences? Not only to think that, but to really believe it, down deep 'in his heart' (sorry!)? Hell, I would even go so far as to recommend belief in God for the pyschological benefits alone. Not as some hardcore fundamentalist type (they're a dying bread anyway), but some loose, Unitarian-style faith.
i like: "everything has an explanation." with the footnote: "the explanation may be beyond your capabilities."
That assumes that people would be interested in such explanations. Obviously, many are not. Why should they be?