Meant To Be

Something I've been pondering a bit recently is the concept of fate/destiny/foreordination: that which is "meant to be." This leads me to ask the question: without a belief in some sort of power, force, or being that ascribes meaning, how can a person believe events and relationships in life are anything but random chaotic happenstance?


RSG Reply:
Who says with any authority that events and relationships are not random and chaotic? Look at any chaotic event, and a pattern begins to emerge. Patterns emerge in chaos and we call it coincidence as often as fate. Ever notice how people come in waves to a line? At one point there is no one in line, then all of a sudden, there are a bunch of people who come at once. Ebbs and flows. Maybe we seek a deeper meaning where we want to find one, almost as if seeking approval from parent. We don't think about the relationships we have formed with the clerk, the neighbor, the coworker as particularly meaningful until they cross some line that makes them "us" and no longer "them". Maybe the "cosmic drawn" is simply a matter of like attracting like, that the meaningful, cosmic "connection" is simply similarity of character, thought or demeanor which we recognize as familiar at a deep and unconscious level? Maybe the reason you are so heavily drawn to a particular person is because that person reminds you of another person you know and connect with?