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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Everything Happens for a Reason

No.

Nothing happens for a reason. “Everything happens for a reason” is like a bad cold. It floats mindlessly around the Internet, constantly re-used by people who haven’t the first inkling of what philosophy is. It’s like an old tie that’s been to the thrift store 8 different times. It’s a cute little citation, but it’s wrong. Nothing happens for a reason. There isn’t a reason that things happen, they just happen and people find reasons to apply to the situation. People seek patterns— they seek understanding. When they can’t find what they’re looking for they make it up, hence religion. Sometimes they make up the reasons and then force things to happen for those reasons. That’s cheating. It’s a controlled experiment, an event that is predetermined by human hands. That is not where this platitude applies. It applies to the things beyond our control. As far as that goes, there is no reason for anything, at least that science can determine. It is possible that something lurks in the dark that makes the reasons. But what are the reasons for its reasons? It’s an argument that is confusing, open-ended, and impractical. Perhaps so for a reason.



Current Mood: Restless
Listening To: N/A

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