Believing it’s ‘meant to be’ will hold you back

The world we live in is chaotic. It is shaped by forces we do not always understand. A handful of powerful people exert disproportionate influence over our lives. There are things we have no ability to control.

When faced with circumstances beyond our control, there is a set of beliefs we rely on for comfort. Chief among them is the claim that “everything happens for a reason.” We tell ourselves the wicked will be punished, good will overcome evil and the obstacles we face will ultimately serve a greater purpose. Unfortunately, when an idea offers us comfort, we tend not to scrutinize the other effects of that belief. Is the world really better if everything happens for a reason?

It is important to understand where ideas come from. Deterministic philosophies — those that explain the world through concepts like fate and destiny — originate from a time when our understanding of the world was limited. When war or disease spread in the ancient world, there was little the common people could do to protect themselves and little information to understand why they were in danger. In this way, people could be compared to children today, and the same way we assure children that “everything will be all right,” we developed the belief that, if we cannot protect ourselves, there must be some force that will.

The resilience of the determinist idea, the reason it is perpetuated by so many belief systems, is that anything can be taken as evidence in its favor. It is not a well-formulated hypothesis, with conditions for disproving as well as proving. Instead, it can be used to justify even opposite results. When someone with a terminal illness is praying for remission, we say she has been saved if her wish is granted, but it was “her time” if she still passes away. We don’t allow for any sort of test — we simply comfort ourselves that everything is going according to plan.

This is perhaps the most damaging aspect of determinism. If everything is evidence for a higher plan, then we must believe that every worldly occurrence was meant to be. The philosophy encourages complacency. It assumes that all who suffer are deserving, or at least that their pain is necessary. In fact, determinism implies all evil must be necessary.

Instead of driving us to change things, determinism urges us to simply accept how things are. This was not a huge detriment in a time where most people were powerless and uninformed, but we can no longer afford to plead ignorance. In the 21st century, nearly every person in America has access to dozens of sources of information, from newspapers and television to the internet. There are no excuses for being uninformed, and we have every means to join together and take action.

With the understanding we have of medicine, we can no longer shrug off thousands of cancer-related deaths as inevitable. With our access to political news and activist groups, we cannot claim politics are beyond our influence.

Nowadays, a determinist worldview is an immense privilege. It thrives in those people for whom life is generally going well. If we are successful, determinism tells us it is because we are deserving. We need only look at health care debates for proof. Wealthy politicians turn up on news shows saying, if the poor want to be wealthy, they should work more hours, find a better job, because if the world always gives us what we deserve, we can believe the poor are being punished for laziness. If the world gives us what we deserve, then everyone is where they are meant to be.

If everything happens for a reason we have no need of empathy, no cause to lift one another up. We are justified in maintaining the status quo, so long as it serves us. Who is to say we deserve better?

David Billig is a UF linguistics master’s student. His column appears on Wednesdays.