zany, do you not realize that the ONLY reason you are Christian is because:
1. You just HAPPENED to be born within a Christian family
2. You have a gullible personality/a lesser tendency to question the world around you.
If it were not for these two conditions, you'd "be going to hell."
Ask yourself why you don't believe in the infinite other religions which existed since the dawn of mankind. If all you can come up with are subjective experiences like "Oh, I FELT God, therefore, he must be real" then you're not alone. I can show you a guy from Iraq, India, or Israel who would say the same exact thing, but instead about THEIR "one and only" God(s)"

Why doesn't he get off his lazy ass and do it himself? How do you know what God wants? How can you talk on behalf of somebody you aren't even sure exists, let alone what he says? Why does this all seem like a poorly written story full of plotholes? Why does God seem less and less omnipotent/omniscient as one reads more of the Bible? Why are there talking snakes, rib women, giant floods that wiped out God's mistakes, virgin births, people turning into pillars of salt, the conversion of water to alcohol, and when all of a sudden when everything is able to be recorded/taped/verified, it just STOPS? And if you start telling me to stop taking things so literally, YOU DON'T GET TO CHOOSE WHAT'S LITERAL AND WHAT'S NOT. And plus, the only reason your religion exists is BECAUSE of the Bible's literal words. It's a vicious cycle.

If a mod could split the topic? Maybe call the new one zany vs ALL xD

lol I wasn't trying to convert you. I just wanted to see what your arguments would be. I used to be Christian, and I like Jesus, but I don't like the Bible or the God described in it.

Let's get back on topic, nao. I don't actually believe in fate, but I use the word "fate" to represent how "screwed" people are the moment they were born under the circumstances they were. We, for instance, are lucky to be born in this century, able to be living in this country, so our general fate is a good life.

If you're an atheist, answer this for me. It's been bothering for almost fifteen hours now.

Atheists do not believe that there is some almighty being guiding them around with a predeclared fate waiting to fall on them, right?

Many atheists believe that evolution, not creationism, is what created humans the way they are today (notice the qualifier many.)

Evolution, as far as natural selection is concerned, is determined through genetic mutations that either cause you to die or survive better.

Genetics are passed down from your parents without any say of what you want them to be.

Thus, isn't your fate already decided?

If you have a genetic mutation that means you have Downs Syndrome for the rest of your life, how could you possibly stop it?

If you're an atheist, answer this for me. It's been bothering for almost fifteen hours now.
Atheists do not believe that there is some almighty being guiding them around with a predeclared fate waiting to fall on them, right?
Many atheists believe that evolution, not creationism, is what created humans the way they are today (notice the qualifier many.)
Evolution, as far as natural selection is concerned, is determined through genetic mutations that either cause you to die or survive better.
Genetics are passed down from your parents without any say of what you want them to be.
Thus, isn't your fate already decided?
If you have a genetic mutation that means you have Downs Syndrome for the rest of your life, how could you possibly stop it?

You've got so many things about predestination wrong. When someone is determined to have Down Syndrome, they're pretty much boned, but that doesn't necessarily mean predestination; you can't determine when or where they'll die, or how their life will be from that point. You can, however, make educated guesses and predict their 'fate', but you can't outright determine when exactly they'll die unless you've somehow found a way to travel to the future and back (which is nigh-impossible).

I'd like to point out that is EXACTLY what predestination is.
I keep forgetting this isn't SD, where comments as dumb as this one have every right to exist, and reported it on accident. My apologies.

When someone is determined to have Down Syndrome, they're pretty much boned, but that doesn't necessarily mean predestination; you can't determine when or where they'll die, or how their life will be from that point.

try again
It's what you said it isn't here, with one glaring exception. The way you're implying it, you make it sound like predestination has something to do with humans knowing exactly what is going to happen, which is an invention of your own and having nothing to do with predestination. Look up fortune telling for that.

But for now, we are all slaves of destiny.

Then I'll keep fighting destiny. After all, I could counter this idea of worthless lives with endless dreams.
Why bother having a job? It's not so much as to make life better, but to make life worth living. What's the point of having luxuries? The real question is what's the point of living as a miser? Why bother getting an education? So we can experience life as well as we can. If you want to believe we're just 'living through life and then just dying at the end', then why do you still persist?

We live so that we can experience life, and learn what we want to learn, and experience everything that the world has to offer, and eventually carry life onwards as long as we can. Not any one of us is eternal, but humanity in a whole? I'd say we've got a long way to go before the universe explodes or however the world ends, so why not keep it like that?

While life, of course, has its many joys and sorrows, is there any reason for us to learn and experience everything the world has to offer? And people don't follow that. When you think about the average person in the US, they just wake up every morning and go to a job that takes up all their day, then they get married and have kids later on, keep on working, then they retire and lounge around. I hardly call this experiencing all of life's joys and happenings.

Sure, people in this time and age tend to be apathetic, but that doesn't mean all of them are. Ever heard of vacations? Maybe playing a new video game? Or how about learning a new instrument? Each time you experience something new, I'd say that's an achievement all in it's own, no matter how small.

Do you want to be like the 'average person' you've described? I wouldn't want to be.