Of Destiny and Destination

The following is an essay written by me about destiny which has been extracted from my book - The Universe - A Personal View ( page 188 to 193 )

Link to my book :-  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk

Of Destiny and Destination

There has always been a firm traditional belief in the existence of a destiny or fate in our life in one form or another regardless of cultural background. That is the reason why the fortune telling business is thriving the world over. Even top world leaders like some past presidents of USA and their better halves are frequent patrons of fortune tellers. There have even been rumours concerning some important foreign policy decisions having been made on the so-called advice from spiritual medium or fortune tellers. Silly as it may sound, it is very probable that such things did happen. When we are uncertain about our own future, we are susceptible to such mystical influences. The basis for the claimed validity of spiritual predictions is, of course, the existence of our destiny like a spiritual book of our “ future history “ that can be read by the spiritual medium. My own interest in this topic actually concerns the issue of free will rather than superstition or mysticism. Before going into the more serious philosophical issues, let us have a brief discussion on the general or common understanding of the term destiny which some
people would prefer to call fate.
The term destiny generally refers to the claim that all the events that
occur in our life are predetermined in the sense that on the day we are born all the conditions relating to different stages of our life have already been set by nature ( or a deity ) or according to some mystical laws that take into account our behaviour in our previous or present lives ( which will then affect our next life ). Another term for destiny is fate which carries similar meaning and connotation. There are even some farfetched theories which claim that by invoking some magical powers the course or destiny of one's life could be changed for the better but only at a price as a matter of course. On the less superstitious level, many people feel that there are some unexplained influences at work behind many important events in their lives which, from their personal point of view, have changed the expected course of their lives altogether. That is why they feel that destiny really exists for each and everyone. Not that I have any preconceived ideas about mystical issues because I do keep an open mind even on things that are beyond the scientific realm. However, I have to say at this particular instant that I do have serious reservations on the existence of a destiny for all of us.

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I would categorically state that the idea of a set destiny in our life is an illusion. This last term is defined as a false or misleading impression, idea, belief or understanding. Something that appears to be true but, in fact, it is not consistent with the reality. Furthermore, I maintain that this illusion of a destiny for everyone is mainly the result of the Selection Effect and the unavoidable bias on our part in favour of the materialized portion of the history of our life. This last mentioned bias is in turn due to a lack of complete understanding of the implications and interpretation of the relevant personal history. Let me elaborate my points a bit further. My salient points must be put into the context of the meaning of the term, destiny which can either be good or bad and the ex post ( on hindsight ) nature of its connotation. Take my own life for example, destiny seems to be kind to me in that I somehow made the correct ( on hindsight ) decision to change to the arts subjects in my matriculation class ( despite my traditional belief that boys should always study science ) or else I most probably ( note the word probably which could be taken to mean surely because I might not have taken up my present profession had I not been admitted to university ) would not have successfully gained entry to the university because of my weakness in mathematics. Before I proceed further with my example, I must make a slight detour to go into the hypothetical case of my failing to enter the university ( which did not happen ) because it will illustrate my point on the built-in bias in favour of the materialized portion of history. If I were a believer in destiny, I would simply say that my destiny is such that I am destined to have a reasonably good career because the good thing did happen in my life. This is the bias I have referred to above. On the other hand, if I was unlucky enough to have made a decision to go for the science subjects, there is no guarantee that I was bound to fail my matriculation examination or the university would be a no go zone for me ( which admittedly would be more probable if I had taken science subjects ). There could be other possibilities and, in fact, an infinite number of possibilities according to the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Theory when we are faced with any decision. You always end up with only one, the materialized portion of your life history which most people call your destiny ( it is actually your personal history ). I might still be lucky enough to enter the university on science subjects or failing that I might still have a reasonably good career as say, a teacher, although it might have been less rewarding financially. If this had been the case, I would have simply said that I had a bad destiny in life if I were a believer and the actually materialized portion of my life history would never be known to me. Then, there would not have been any comparison between the two different life histories. So, you will see that in either event ( i.e. good or bad destiny ), the notion of destiny applies depending on your attitude or state of mind regarding your career. For ambitious people, they are more likely to pay attetion to the good destiny and to ignore the bad ones while the opposite applies to people with no ambitions who would simply chalk their failure up to bad destiny. Conversely, coming back to my own real life history, I would just feel lucky to have had a good destiny if I were a believer. This is the working of the Selection Effect. You only pick out the facts you like to pay attention to based on your social and cultural background and previous conditioning of your brain. This is the lesson we have learned from the Science of Networks regarding history. You can never envisage other possible scenarios that did not happen or what could have been. May be they could have been better. Take my personal case. Had I taken science subjects and were lucky enough ( or worked hard enough ) to enter university all the same, then I might have become a successful research biologist because it is also one of my favourite subjects for which I got good grades but required less mathematical skill. I am not saying that this scenario had to happen but it might if I were to do my utmost to achieve this career goal because I had both the ability and temperament to succeed in this regard. My point is that the outcome of my life history also depends a lot on my personal attitudes where positive ( a necessary condition for success ) and negative ones could substantially account for my success or failure respectively. Of course, success and failure in one's life is also contigent upon luck ( which is the sufficient condition ) and there is also an additional one I call the final condition ( i. e. favourable quantum disposition ) to ensure success in anything. Because of the Selection Effect and the built-in bias towards the materialized portion of my life history I have come to feel grateful as it is a good destiny while ignoring what might have been ( that can be equal to if not better than the actual outcome ) which is understandable. Depending on whether

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your attitude on life is positive or negative, the fish that got away ( the unknown outcome ) may either be smaller or larger than your materialized catch respectively. It is anyone's guess and the same principle applies to that portion of the history of our life which did not materialize. Your feeling of what could have been depends mostly on your attitude on life. Therefore, the greatest problem in achieving success in anything is to overcome yourself in psychological terms. That is to maintain a positive state of mind.
This is not the end of the story on the issue of destiny. As a matter of fact, there are specific reasons why the term destiny is so miraculous and even fascinating to some people in more dramatic cases of life history. To start with, terms such as destiny or God ( a detailed discussion on this very important subject is forthcoming in the next section ) have some unique qualities. They are ex post statements meaning they describe a situation which had already happened ( no predictive content ) and they are also a truism meaning they state some obvious truths. Truism or tautology refers to words or statements that only have relevance in themselves and does not refer to anything outside of the system in question. In other words, they are self-referencing and have no empirical contents in the sense that they cannot be proved right or wrong by reference to facts outside of themselves because they do not relate to anything other than themselves. Take the statement :- “ My parents are the people who bring me into this world. “ It is a truism or tautology because this statement is simply setting out the obvious truth. It does not say anything more than just this :- “ my parents are my parents.” It is a mere definition of the term parents. There is no real proposition that can be challenged or proven one way or the other with reference to any facts outside of the proposition itself. Ex post statements are a description of history. It has no predictive power or content unlike their counterpart which are known as ex ante statements which make definite predictions about something. For example, the statement :- “ When interest rates go up, house prices will go down. “ This ex ante statement has a definite prediction that can be put to the test by some future events. Therefore, ex ante statements are generally more useful and have a richer predictive content than ex post ones which are wisdom after the facts or hindsights. A corollary flowing from ex post statements ( or terms ) is that they are true by definition and say nothing more than their own face value. Destiny is such a word. Unless and until we can size up all the possible outcomes and compare them with the materialized portion of our life history we cannot say with confidence ( or on any logical basis ) that our life history is predetermined or that there is a destiny for everyone. For destiny means that we cannot change the course of our life because we surely can. Remember the example I gave earlier in this book about free will. All things living and non-living are subject to the laws of nature (OR) but we can also choose to end our lives ( physical existence ) by suicide at any time and to cease to be governed by those rigid laws. Whether or not we wish to face up to life's perils in our time of trial and hardship or simply quit by taking our own lives is really up to us and us alone. It is clearly a matter of personal choice and free will. This hypothetical case gives support to the claim that our lives are not predetermined and that we are not automata responding mechanically and blindly to our set destiny. But, of course, we may still be caught by the catch-22 situation of the all embracing and ex post meaning of the definition of the term destiny which can be said either to be good or bad on hightsight. Fatalists ( the name we give to those people who believes in fate or destiny ) can still maintain in the foregoing hypothetical case that we had fufilled our good destiny if we choose to face our difficulties and live on or they can equally say that we have met our bad destiny if we actually commit suicide to avoid facing our problems in life. One way or the other, the term destiny will apply because it is an ex post concept and a piece of wisdom after the facts or simply a statement on hindsight. What destiny really means in practical terms is this :- “ your life history is your life history “ which the reader must agree to be a self-referencing tautology or truism. The bottom line is that it has said nothing useful or meaningful in the predictive or empirical sense. It does not tell us anything more than that which is already known to us within the isolated content of the statement itself. It is isolated because it refers to nothing else but itself. It actually begs the confrontational retort question of “ so what ? “
The very vital point on people's feeling about some miraculous or mystical influences in the course of their lives must be addressed here since this feeling is very often cited as a reason for their belief in destiny or fate. It is my contention that such

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feelings are a normal reaction to the complicated nature of human affairs. The ultra complex multi-lateral interactions between numerous socio-human factors ( most of which operate on the rules of Chaos and Complexity ) will very likely give rise to the mystical touch in the outcomes of events that can create a sense of fate and destiny in the observer, especially in the person involved in the particular outcome. The sense of complexity coupled with our inborn inquesitive mind to find a reason for everything ( but which we cannot in this particularly complicated issue ) very naturally lead us to the mystical conclusion of a predetermined destiny as a possible explanation for the sometimes strange and apparently unexplicable course of events. I must again draw the reader's attention to Nietzche 's saying :- “ Any explanation is better than none ! “ The important lesson we can learn from the scientific theory of Chaos and Complexity is the misguided idea of the conservation of complexity. The useful and crucial moral to be learnt here is that complex phenomena may have a very simple origin and, conversely, simple phenomena may have a highly complex origin. I strongly recommend a revision of chapter ( v ) on the Theory of Chaos and Complexity by the reader to facilitate an easier understanding of the arguments at hand. There are two things that are worthy of noting as far as this miraculous or mystical feeling is concerned. Firstly, as mentioned at the beginning of this topic, when we are at the cross roads in our life facing serious decisions we are prone to seeking divine guidance. Anyone with some religious background will feel inspirations of some sort from their brain's previous conditioning hence the mystical feeling. Secondly, the materialized portion of your life history is known to you. Regardless of whether or not it is good or bad, you are bound to be more familiar with it. On the contrary, what could have been your life history belongs to the set of infinite number of possibilities that are unknown to you. Therefore, you are very likely to have imagined or created a mental image of the possibilities in your mind which can give rise to the mystical feeling that you actually experience when you are reminiscing your past life history.
However frivolous the claim of the existence of destiny may be there can, nevertheless, be very important consequences flowing from the acceptance of such a concept. The real danger in believing in destiny lies in the negative implication that you cannot do anything about it ( since it is supposed to be predetermined ). Worse still, some fortune teller may take advantage of your vulnerable mental state to recommend costly remedies to improve your future fortunes. As regards using the service of a fortune teller, I have the following advice to suggest. If there really is such a thing as destiny, it serves us best not to know about it. For it will not matter when a good destiny takes its course without your knowing it in advance. On the contrary, knowing about a bad destiny will give you more pain and mental suffering if you knew it before hand. Since destiny is supposed to be predetermined why endure more pain than is necessary before its arrival. On the other hand, if there is no such thing as destiny ( in the predetermined sense ), then your life could be adversely affected by being told a lie and through suffering from some imaginery psychological blow that may, in the worst case, become the nightmare of a self- fufilling prophecy. This could happen because your predisposed attitude towards an unchangeable future could easily have been relied upon as an excuse to sit on your back side without making any real efforts to achieve your intended goals. Having sounded the above warning, I do have to say that if you are not really 100% superstitious the fortune teller can assume the role of a court jester to provide you, and may be your lover, with some lovers' entertainment of sweet nothing talks. I and my wife used to seek advice from the fortune teller regarding the auspicious date for our marriage on the bidding of my mother-in-law when we decided to get married back in 1979. Our marriage life has been so far so good but, of course, we will not give the fortune teller the bulk of the credit. We decided to be married out of love and of our own free will and we will definitely take full responsibility for our decision and common goal in life – destiny or no destiny ! Having discouraged people from using the service of a fortune teller, I do have one last kind word for this mystical or dubious profession ( depending your point of view ). When people are faced with difficult decisions or spells of bad luck in their lives I do understand that their emotional stress needs venting or relief. Perhaps getting some encouraging advice ( you usually get the ones you like to hear - that is why people like to visit fortune tellers ) from the fortune teller is justified. This is alright as a psychological pain killer and temporary relief for the emotional stress. As long as you remain level headed and not misled into

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following such advice to the last letter, I think it should be a harmless exercise or an alternative pseudo psychological therapy. I also have a message here for young lovers with respect to destiny. Just consider this. What is more precious to people involved in a loving relationship – an unavoidable destiny that tie you two together or a conscious and irrevocable choice made out of love and of your own free will that forge your union ? Which idea is more romantic – the mutual and personal choice between you two out of love and to pick each other out of millions of people in this world to tie the knot or an inevitable act of history ( destiny that is your own life history ) that has created your personal love story as if by legal mandate ? Answer me that you prefer your loving relationship to be forced by the circumstamces of your life history and I will grant you the existence of destiny in the predetermined sense.
Let me now tell you two stories from my own experience on the illusion of destiny. Both concern myself and my friends. The first story is my personal experience. While I was attending university, all of us had part-time teaching jobs. We used to rush to some private schools between our lecture hours to teach. We also changed jobs very often depending on the remunerations offered by those private schools. Back in the university were a few pretty female undergaduates everyone dubbed as beauty queens ( simliar to the prom queens in high school days ). On one occasion, I had to stand in for my room mate at a teaching assignment. As if by divine intervention, I ran into one of the beauty queens who happened to be standing in for her room mate as well. I, being a lad of 20 years of age at the time, instinctively thought that I was destined to meet this beauty queen alone. She was one year my junior which by university etiquettes made it obligatory on her part to pay respect to me as a senior. She was in the same faculty as I and was an active member of many academic clubs ( as I was also a committee member of my faculty society ). With such similar backgrounds, we had a lot to talk about. So, I was able to invite her out for afternoon tea in a classy coffee shop of a five star hotel and a dating game blossomed. To cut a long story short, there was a brief interlude with this lovely young lady lasting some three months. It was quite an experience at the end of which I was devastated to find out that she was also dating my room mate who was my good friend and a few others of my classmates as well. Luckily, I was level headed enough to opt out of the relationship on account of my strong sense of responsibility towards my family and dedication to my studies but not without the penalty of losing a few friends and getting some bad grades. So much for an unavoidable destiny which I had fortunately chosen to change. This is just one out of a number of episodes I encountered in my early life that sounded the alarm bell for me on having a sense of
destiny.
A second more tragic case happened to one of my classmates. It had a similar setting as my own frolic but it involved another socially over-active young lady. The failed romance had such a devastating effect on my classmate that he had to defer his study for an extra year to recuperate from the emotional damage. Under the rigid British university system that was very strict on conferring honours on graduates, my classmate was ulitimately given an R.P. or recommended pass in his degree which became a stigma for life ( with the R.P. Initials being permanently attached to his degree title ) and this had adversely affected his later career all through his life one way or another. Well, I did not know the exact circumstances relating to his misfortunes but many of my classmates including myself had heard him boasting about his good destiny during the failed romance. So, there you have it. A blind attachment to the idea of a predetermined destiny could be hazardous to your well being !
I hope the reader is now convinced on the disadvantages of having a blind and superstitious belief in destiny. But I think that the concept of destiny can also be utilized to our advantage if we are wise enough to overlook the emotional implication of a predetermined history in life. For one thing, I think we can turn destiny into a destination in life by setting ourselves a meaningful goal that can motivate us to create a successful life for ourselves. This is also one of the main aims of my book. By setting a predetermined destination in life of our own choosing we can achieve the ideal situation of having personal control over our own destiny ( to me it means life itself ) and can turn a bad situation into a winning venture. For every journey, there must be a destination or else one will become a lost traveller. It would be a great personal disaster, especially in the context

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of our life in which case one would certainly become a nomad for life. Without a set destination that is our ultimate goal and our personal meaning in life, one will only end up as a drifter. Can you imagine how tragic this can be ? There is one final word on the issue of destiny. I started the discussion by stating that my main concern with destiny is the question of free will. Now it is the right time to address my concern in this regard. Having set out my arguments on the illusion of destiny, I trust you will agree with me that our free will is well and kicking. Otherwise, there would have been a crisis on our hands because free will is what makes all of us human. It is this defining characteristic that differentiate us from other species of animals although this privilege has carried with it a grave responsibility. That is how to use it wisely and to our own advantage and that of society. Rights and obligations always go hand in hand. It is the law of nature. These are just another pair of complementary qualities out of many in this universe that are inextricably attached to each other. It is part of the natural law and it must be obeyed if the universal order is not to be up set to our own detriment. In my opinion, the pitfall in the interpretation of the idea of destiny is to ascribe to it some predictive content ( for example, to try to read our future destiny through fortune telling ) based on our emotional state while the idea itself is, in fact, of an ex post nature without any ex ante content. So long as we can avoid this pitfall, we will be on home ground.