I just realized there is no such thing as fate!

For so long I've doing research about fate, destiny and all things connected to it; it's such a fascinating topic that I decided to get into it in-depth, but I wasn't paying to my own choices in life and how it was affecting it. Then it came to my that believing in fate takes power from you and doesn't let you take control of what you do, even though I believe in some way the Universe is plotting to make me happy, but if I don't do anything about it, then nothing will happen.

Karmic Wheel

The concept of karma has always made us believe that all deeds (good or bad) never go unpunished, which has created the constant fear of not making the right choices because eventually our actions and their results will come back to bite us in the ass! Hannah Arendt dedicated good part of her life to understand the power of action and its consequences, which she did brilliantly, to show us that the only way to control is through promises, which bind our choices to the limits of the agreement or through forgiveness, to start from the scratch, Either way, our actions have an effect that can be measured and that can go on forever, until someone stops its effect somewhere in time.

This very issue was discussed by Freud when he noticed that most soldiers coming back from war showed neurotic behavior, having the feeling of being chased constantly, that someone was always behind them and that there was a fate or predestination, so nothing could be stopped.

Now, the thing is my dear friends that it is all lies, even though our actions have consequences, it doesn't necessarily mean that everything we will have an impact; this belief comes from believing in the law of causation, proposed by Hume, who pointed that we tend to associate certain actions with certain effects (for instance: if you throw a stone in a pond it will create ripples) therefore associating causes and effects. However, this doesn't always happens, it might happen when it comes to the laws of science (physics, chemistry, etc.) but not when we talk of the human experience. We have seen the most surprising reactions to very common causes, all of this because the power of free will, which is a gift, whether you want to see it as a divine gift or not, a gift that nature can't fight against.

Evolution

So, there you go, even if the Universe has set a path for me to walk, I'm free of not walking it, I can go wherever I go and the results will be the ones I want and look for. Sometimes we get so accustomed to our daily routines that we forget we have the power to do something different everyday; we have lost all ability to be spontaneous, we act like little robots and leaving our comfort zone frightens us horribly, we try to stick to what we know and what we can do and never dare to experience something new. Well, there;s something Darwin, I think, understood pretty good: changes are good, it makes us grow and evolve, if the environment we are in doesn't represent any challenge, we get stuck, basically, humanity got here because it has free will and an exceptional adaptation skills; one day the decided to walk in two legs, then to walk out of Africa, then to explore beyond the sea, then explore the stars, then walk on the Moon (even though we haven't been able to overcome our fascination with the night sky) and slowly walking on Mars' surface (using a robot, I know, but it is the first step).

So, if there's no fate, then what happens? That's the beauty of it, everyday comes as a new experience, the illusion dissolves and we are open to embrace reality for what it is: something that is always changing and providing us with opportunities to live and learn. If there is no such thing as fate I can live life fully, without fear.