Does the phrase "everything happens for a reason" suggest that we have no free will, that existence is limited to a series of pre-determined events that are destined to happen no matter what we do?
I don’t really believe that phrase. I think things happen, and we react to them, or we make things happen in our lives through focus, persistence, passion, and hard work (and sometimes stupidity 😄).
I think that phrase was made up to help hearts move on, but I don’t believe in destiny, predetermined conditions over which we have no control.
It's one of those phrases that many use but doesn't hold up to scrutiny... As you say. If true it does preclude free will and if so, what's the point of doing anything?
Good question. I think the definition leans on someone's belief, or not, in either the supernatural or maybe metaphysics. Without those things it can be a literal statement. As in cause and effect. But I think it's more often used as comforting phrase after something unexpected takes place.
Nah, I don’t see it as predetermined, but as a flow. If you hold on loosely and keep balance you can ride whatever through. You crash sometimes, it’s still sometimes, but life goes on relentlessly.
@DunningKruger but we both know that our actions lead to consequences, ultimately influencing outcomes and events. A lazy mindset leaves it all up to chance and other people's work.
@Ferric67 Do we know that, or do we just believe it? Are the "consequences" that we experience preordained, meaning that we don't really have any choice in our actions, because what we're going to do is preordained, as well? Is free will an illusion?
People, however, like to attach mythical qualities to randomness, to avoid admitting they're helpless. It's why man created God.
You can also have all the free will you want, but it does not prevent a guy, from downing a half bottle of vodka, then getting in a forklift, and driving it loaded, on Aurora Ave, where he caused an accident, killing the matriarch of a family.
Beyond the frequent colloquial expression, some and not few people equates "reason" with some kind of a priori purpose. In material terms there is no such a thing as absolute determinism and neither such a thing as unrestricted chance.