by will sprout

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2009

FATE?

In the King James Version of the Holy Bible it says that; 'To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.'

This verse is found at Ecclesiastes 3:1, suggesting that fate is the sole instigator in the action of all things, but what we have to determine is: 'what is fate'?

According to most dictionaries 'fate' suggests a destiny, or a predetermined course that the 'subject' will follow. It is a concept of belief where a fixed or natural order of the universe is maintained.

Many regard this fate to be the will of God, in the maintaining of his creation.

In this way 'fate' has become accepted in the normal everyday processes which we undertake in the living of our lives and is probably better defined by the song, Que sera, Sera, recorded in 1956 and sung by Doris Day, which immediately became a popular song in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The translation of the songs title basically means; 'whatever will be, will be.'

The song and the interpretation of the word fate indicate that life or natural processes are not dictated by individuals but by a force or power far greater than what we can understand. In a sense we are accepting what we believe to be the inevitable conclusion of things to be beyond our control.

This conclusion to 'things' may sometimes be thought to have been altered by the action of individuals who either commit suicide or who through legal methods choose to end their own lives. But what we cannot determine is whether the choice the person made was also predetermined by an unknown power?

I suppose a good way to view the existence of all things would be to associate it with time; if we consider the natural process of all things to be determined by time we need to understand that, for example, 'life,' begins in the first second but part of it dies with the commencement of the second, second. This time allotment for 'life' has been given, and is determined individually. In this way some insects may only exist through adulthood for a few hours; some people may live to be over a hundred years old; and why animals such as the turtle could live for five hundred years.

Intelligence tells us that no amount of manipulation could extend the life cycle of the insect to live its natural life beyond its expected duration, and at the same time realise that apart from foul play we could not determine the life expectancy of a human or turtle.

As the Bible passage says; 'to every thing there is a season, and a time

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