Everything happens for a reason... ?

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What do BITOG members think when a person says:
"Everything happens for a reason..."

99% of the time something bad happened and the person will use this phrase.
Job layoff, illness, divorce, personal problems, bad luck, accident, being at the wrong place at the wrong time (Sept 11, 2001), bad karma, ....etc...

Do you agree or disagree ?
 
When someone says "Everything happens for a reason" I agree.

In this case, the reason they said it to let me know they are an idiot.
 
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I've always considered this to be a very silly point of view.
So many things happen at random, for good or for ill.
You might just happen to find a penny in the parking lot, or a $20.00 bill laying in your front yard, as I did.
You might also happen to get, or not get, a standby seat on an airliner that then crashes into the Atlantic with the loss of all aboard.
There is no reason that I can see for any random event.
 
There is nothing measured to suggest this.

Human perception is amazingly flawed. Much of people's reality is basically a fabrication.
 
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It's a platitude; one that's used too often to have any value. But, I think that a lot of those who use it are trying to be sympathetic or just don't know what to say that would be helpful.

So, I don't find it irritating when someone says it, however, I don't really take it to heart.
 
"Everything happens for a reason" is a weak expression which is, in my opinion, uttered by stupid people.

It matters not if they mean well or if they intend to infuriate. To my ear they're trying to sound intelligent, religious or poignant.

I think it's a watered down version of "God works in mysterious ways"; just another expression people blurt out.
 
Its a reactive, justifying way to "sum-up" a situation. From my own seeing, we humans are terribly incapable of really being with and hence accepting "what is", ie whatever the situation is that life has presented us. we indulge in the many distractions: "Everything happens for a reason..." is just one of them.

Do we have to say anything when something happens, if we're awake, present, more often than not, words are of little use.

Life is always throwing challenges, question is, is our response to the challenge adequate?....rarely, I'd say.

As for karma, its another mindless game of belief/illusion.

If you really wanna dig into this stuff, I cannot enough recommend reading books by J.Krishnamurti.
 
It's a stupid proposition if attributed to anything supernatural. But I'd agree that most occurrences do in fact happen for a reason, but being able to scientifically calculate why is difficult.

Like acts of nature. When someone's house gets destroyed by any number of natural phenomena, there are explainable scientific reasons why. It's harder to near impossible to calculate reason why humans do the things they do though...
 
It's in the same category as when people tell you "change is always good". To which I say baloney. It's not ALWAYS GOOD. The people that utter that kind of statement are usually the ones that break the news to those who don't welcome the change for a lot of good reasons and will be more affected by the change than the clown that tosses out the "change is always good" statement.
 
Many (most?) people need to go about their business every day, doing their pointless jobs, worrying about trivialities, gossiping about the latest episode of What's Wrong With The Kardashians, all so they can avoid thinking. "Everything happens for a reason", along with "God works in mysterious ways", is a mental shortcut to avoid thinking about the nature of our existence.
 
Heres a few I like.
If you're going to be dumb, you'd better be tough.
If you have a lot of problems, the main one is you.
It takes a lot of hard work to be this lucky.
Don't worry about what you can't change.
 
...and, what about all of those things that don't happen.
What about all of those folks who drive like fools and never have an accident?
What about all of the flights made by dodgy operators with poorly maintained aircraft piloted by fairly incompetent crews that don't crash (and there are many such flights worldwide every day)?
What about those who make poor lifestyle choices and never suffer from them?
There is no reason for most events.
Things happen.
The most careful driver gets killed in a collision that was unavoidable and was in no way his fault.
A flight operated with an aircraft with an excellent safety record with a skilled crew goes down with the loss of all aboard.
A guy who has never smoked and who has tried to live a healthy lifestyle comes down with lung cancer or dies of an unexpected MI.
Things good and bad happen at random and without reason.
We can look to statistics, but they tell us nothing about individual outcomes.
 
You'll get a drastically different response to this question from most religious denominations. I'm not overly religious. Just stating a fact.
 
I heard my niece say it after her friend from high school died of cancer at 19 years old...
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
You'll get a drastically different response to this question from most religious denominations. I'm not overly religious. Just stating a fact.


It depends on if they've already prayed. You can't start saying "Everything happens for a reason" until you've determined that your prayer won't be answered.
 
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