Do things happen for a reason?

[Shazzalovesnovels]

OP - do you mean everything happens due to some grand master plan OR that everything is caused by something else? Really the question in the thread title is one of my top pet hates, masked in a veil of profundity yet utterly vague, imprecise and impossible to answer without clarification. FFS.

sorry lol
Not the grand master plan thing. Do you think things happen for a reason based on whatever you believe? or is there no real reason.

[Duty]

Things are caused by things, yes. I mean, WTF?!

[Abaddon_ire]

OP - do you mean everything happens due to some grand master plan OR that everything is caused by something else? Really the question in the thread title is one of my top pet hates, masked in a veil of profundity yet utterly vague, imprecise and impossible to answer without clarification. FFS.

sorry lol
Not the grand master plan thing. Do you think things happen for a reason based on whatever you believe? or is there no real reason.

There are reasons for everything. We may or may not be able to determine those reasons.

What one happens to believe is irrelevant.

The Sultan of Brunei is fabulously rich and a muslim. Is that a good reason for us all to convert to Islam? In the hopes that we will similarly become fabulously wealthy?

[Duty]

never mind...

[Shazzalovesnovels]

Until you describe the "things" I can't postulate a reason.

I can tell you that none of my reasons would be magic/supernatural (unless magic/supernatural is the things).

Is this a good people/bad things thread?

idk. like, why did JFK die? I'm sure the person who killed him had their reasons but why was he even born in the first place? And yeah I get it's because his parents created him, but why HIM. And why did he become president? Why did I join this forum thing? Is it going to effect me later in life? Why was I born and not the brother I've never had? 

Is there a reason these things happen and if not, is/was there an alternate series of events, that could have occurred but didn't because of one or many actions taken?

I don't know how else to ask my question, it's just an endless circle inside my head.

[Duty]

It sounds to me like you ARE asking if we believe in a master plan (ie - God's plan) then, and the answer, our being atheists, would be NO.

Also I'm a determinist who does not believe in free will (although I believe people must be TREATED by society/friends/family/the law etc as though we DO have free will) and those are the issues you're getting toward.

[The Grand Nudger]

idk. like, why did JFK die? I'm sure the person who killed him had their reasons but why was he even born in the first place? And yeah I get it's because his parents created him, but why HIM.

Because his head was occupying the same space as a piece of metal.

And why did he become president? 

Americans voted for him.

Why did I join this forum thing?

That seems like a question that you shouldn't need to ask of any of us?

Is it going to effect me later in life? Why was I born and not the brother I've never had? 

Could have been any number of reasons, all of them to do with your parents.  

Is there a reason these things happen and if not, is/was there an alternate series of events, that could have occurred but didn't because of one or many actions taken?

Like, say, if jfks parents had a girl instead of him, and that girl didn't grow up to be the president, she probably wouldn't have been shot.

That sort of thing?  I'm sure we can imagine endless variations on a single theme.

I don't know how else to ask my question, it's just an endless circle inside my head.

Some answers are unsatisfying, and we set ourselves into a spiral trying to arrive at a more satisfying answer than the thing we already know to be true.  I didn't tell you anything that you didn't already know, up above.

[Shazzalovesnovels]

It sounds to me like you ARE asking if we believe in a master plan (ie - God's plan) then, and the answer, our being atheists, would be NO.

Also I'm a determinist who does not believe in free will (although I believe people must be TREATED by society/friends/family/the law etc as though we DO have free will) and those are the issues you're getting toward.

I'm stupid but I'm not THAT stupid. This is an atheist forum, I'm aware of that. I really am try to lean away from God's plan in this thread. I want to know how you guys rationalize without it. 
How do you mean, we don't have free will?

[chimp3]

Not for "a" reason. There are many reasons that things happen. If I pick up a pen and drop it, gravity causes it to fall. But it also falls because I picked it up and dropped it.

[Shazzalovesnovels]

idk. like, why did JFK die? I'm sure the person who killed him had their reasons but why was he even born in the first place? And yeah I get it's because his parents created him, but why HIM.

Because his head was occupying the same space as a piece of metal.

And why did he become president? 

Americans voted for him.

Why did I join this forum thing?

That seems like a question that you shouldn't need to ask of any of us?

Is it going to effect me later in life? Why was I born and not the brother I've never had? 

Could have been any number of reasons, all of them to do with your parents.  

Is there a reason these things happen and if not, is/was there an alternate series of events, that could have occurred but didn't because of one or many actions taken?

Like, say, if jfks parents had a girl instead of him, and that girl didn't grow up to be the president, she probably wouldn't have been shot.

That sort of thing?  I'm sure we can imagine endless variations on a single theme.

I don't know how else to ask my question, it's just an endless circle inside my head.

Some answers are unsatisfying, and we set ourselves into a spiral trying to arrive at a more satisfying answer than the thing we already know to be true.  I didn't tell you anything that you didn't already know, up above.

*sigh*