What If Everything Is Determined By Fate?
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What If Everything Is Determined By Fate?
What if all that we did was already predetermined, like some philosophers have already discussed? Then the decision to quit alcohol is not really as relevant, right?
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Originally Posted by MelindaFlowers 
Whatever my destiny is, I refuse to do it with a hangover. Sometimes I joke that I didn't quit drinking, I quit the hangovers.
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My experience suggests to me that we have a great deal to do with how our lives play out. 
I think that's a better mindset for someone in recovery to have rather than not taking any action and chalking everything up to fate?
D
I think that's a better mindset for someone in recovery to have rather than not taking any action and chalking everything up to fate?
D
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Originally Posted by Dee74
My experience suggests to me that we have a great deal to do with how our lives play out.
I think that's a better mindset for someone in recovery to have rather than not taking any action and chalking everything up to fate?
D
I think that's a better mindset for someone in recovery to have rather than not taking any action and chalking everything up to fate?
D
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God does for me what I can not do for myself but he does not do what I can. I can pray all day long for a ham sandwich but I doubt I will get one. What I will get is the health and intelligence to get a job, make money, and buy myself a ham sandwich
EndGame
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Believing you are capable of making choices about who you want to be, and then acting on those choices, mitigates against fate as the prime mover. The fact that something happened does not mean that it had to happen in a particular way, and at a particular time and place. Hindsight bias leads us to believe that past events "had to happen that way" and is grounded on the retrospective belief that "I should have seen it coming."
I may be wrong but, in view of another of your threads, it sounds as though you're searching for something that will validate something you've either done or plan to do.
I may be wrong but, in view of another of your threads, it sounds as though you're searching for something that will validate something you've either done or plan to do.
Adventures In SpaceTime
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Yeah, the powers of fate is more about myth and good story telling than anything else is my take on it. I agree with EndGame too. When a drinker begins to nullify the importance of sobriety, quitting, and whatever else out of their own control, they are absolutely setting themselves up for some serious consequences.
Opportunities for creating choices of power are everywhere in abundance for those who simply don't want to settle for misery, sorrow, and selfishness ruling their lives. I used to make such choices back when I was drinking. I wanted to drink, and such a dreadful mindset gave me "reason enough" to pick up that drink. It was never about my fate. It was always about my choices and the consequences, obligations, and responsibilities of same.
Opportunities for creating choices of power are everywhere in abundance for those who simply don't want to settle for misery, sorrow, and selfishness ruling their lives. I used to make such choices back when I was drinking. I wanted to drink, and such a dreadful mindset gave me "reason enough" to pick up that drink. It was never about my fate. It was always about my choices and the consequences, obligations, and responsibilities of same.
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hi Sober. Belief in just fate renders us quite helpless, quite hopeless. Just as you have said yourself. How then can we ever change anything about ourselves or our life if we hold that view? ...like changing the actions of our drinking? I am more inclined to believe something more hopeful is possible...that with the right kind of intention, I'll be able to influence what I do next in very practical terms. So, eg, if I 'intend' not to drink today, and keep reminding myself of this intention...it's this, that will help drive what I actually 'do' today to prevent me from taking that first drink. In other words the intention will drive the way I act out my recovery plan? This feels a more hopeful view of life, more encouraging. It lifts me - especially when I really need lifting, for me to know 'I' can manage the changes necessary to stop drinking, and stay stopped.
But...anyway, it seems to me reading your posts that you are feeling bad about something that's happened? Can you talk about it here...if there is something?
But...anyway, it seems to me reading your posts that you are feeling bad about something that's happened? Can you talk about it here...if there is something?
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Using fate as an excuse to keep drinking is grasping at straws. I do believe in fate and destiny to a degree, but I also believe that the choices we make affect the ultimate outcome. Some things are beyond our control. Quitting drinking is not one of them.
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Originally Posted by Soberintexas007
What if all that we did was already predetermined, like some philosophers have already discussed? Then the decision to quit alcohol is not really as relevant, right?
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Originally Posted by Ultramarathoner
What if it's not?
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Originally Posted by Soberintexas007
What if all that we did was already predetermined, like some philosophers have already discussed? Then the decision to quit alcohol is not really as relevant, right?
nice try
no point even trying then, right?
can't really take responsibility, either, after we do something that was just meant to be, right?
hm...guess you getting this reply from me would then not be because i decided to write it but because it was meant and destined eons ago that one day there would be computers and SR and i was fated to write it simply because you were destined at this particular moment to read it.
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Originally Posted by Soberintexas007
What if all that we did was already predetermined, like some philosophers have already discussed? Then the decision to quit alcohol is not really as relevant, right?
And alcoholics will look for any reason to keep drinking until they're ready to get honest with themselves and stop.
I used to think I was fated to keep drinking. I was wrong. I know you (and anyone else here) can quit for good, too.
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Why don't you think about it in a practical way? Do most things just happen to you passively, without your influence? Do you just lie or sit around still all day, and get somehow magically fed? Does your work or whatever activity you engage in just happen and moves your body as some sort of external force? Does alcohol pour into your system on its own volition without your conscious participation?
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