A Riddle About Fate

“Everything Happens for a Reason.”

Does that quote indicate a belief in Fate? Consider the following scenarios.

  1. Jay causes a traffic accident that severely wounds another driver and her child but spares Jay any injury and barely even damages his car. He is however arrested on suspicion of recklessness following an investigation of the accident scene. After a night in jail, Jay has to face his father, Zed, who has come to bail him out. Before he agrees to pay, Zed asks his son for an explanation. “Everything happens for a reason, son,” he says to Jay.
  2. Kay lies in her hospital bed clinging to life. She had been drinking heavily the night of the accident, while driving her daughter home. Deeply shamed by her behavior and buoyed by the outpouring of love and concern from her friends who visit her bedside, Kay reconnects with her life and family and resolves to quit her irresponsible behavior. Suffering intense pain from her injuries, she nevertheless tells her friend, “Everything happens for a reason.”
  3. Jay has no contact with Kay during her hospitalization, but the death of Kay’s daughter fills him with guilt and remorse. He sees the accident as an indictment of his recklessness but senses the hand of God at work in sparing him. He doesn’t change his behavior in any way, but ever after believes that whatever occurs in his life is God’s will, over which he has no control and for which he has no responsibility. “Everything happens for a reason,” is how he describes the human condition.
  4. Zed regrets having raised a son as irresponsible as Jay and resolves to do a better job with his daughter Dee. Together they form an organization called Teens at the Scene that promotes safe teenage driving, accident prevention, and emergency responsiveness. After years of labor, they take the group national, score big, and become very influential, as well as rich. Zed proposes a toast to their good fortune, but Dee replies, “This was no accident; everything happens for a reason, Dad.”

Exercise

Regarding the four declarations that “everything happens for a reason,” in a Reply below,

  • Number your answers 1-4.
  • Identify which of the four declarations are expressions of a belief in fate.
  • For those that are not, describe what they do declare.

15 Responses to A Riddle About Fate

  1. thatpersonoverthere's avatar thatpersonoverthere says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:35 am

    Every situation has an explanation

    Her daughter’s death caused her to improve her friendships

    Fate

    fate

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  2. Snowman10's avatar Snowman10 says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:37 am
    1. Fate: Zed tells Jay, “Everything happens for a reason, son.”
    2. Not fate: Kay tells her friend, “Everything happens for a reason.”
    3. Fate: Jay believes events are God’s will, saying, “Everything happens for a reason.”
    4. Not fate: Dee responds, “This was no accident; everything happens for a reason, Dad.”

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  3. Brandon Sigall's avatar eaglesfan says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:38 am
    1. The declaration in this sentence is a belief of fate.
    2. The declaration in this sentence is not a belief in fate. In this sentence Kay is basically saying she needed that to happen so that she could quit her drinking problem.
    3. The declaration in this sentence is a belief in fate.
    4. The declaration in this sentence is not a belief in fate. Dee says this happened on purpose and that there was no accident about what happened or luck to how they got to that point. Dee talks as if Jay’s crash is what made them be able to get to this point.

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  4. temporal111's avatar temporal111 says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:38 am
    1. no. he is asking his son for the reason as to why he was driving recklessly
    2. yes
    3. yes
    4. no. Shes saying the reason why they got their success was because of their hard work, and not because of luck.

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  5. Unknown's avatar Anonymous says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:38 am

    Username

    1.Fate

    2.Fate

    3.Fate

    4.Fate

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  6. davidbdale's avatar davidbdale says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:38 am

    We make no choices.

    Life offers us the illusion of choice, and we need desperately to believe that we control our decisions, but, sadly, or not, everything we do is out of our control.

    That, paradoxically, does not alleviate our responsibility for our behavior. We will, and should, still be accountable for our actions.

    But, to be blunt, if we are capable of “resisting our darker impulses,” we can’t take credit for making a decision to do so. We either can, or we can’t.

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  7. ilovemydog's avatar ilovemydog says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:39 am
    1. No. I don’t think this is a belief in fate because the dad is implying that there is a logical reason to Jay’s traffic accident.
    2. No. I don’t think this is a belief in fate because she is implying that the accident itself is what caused her to change her life and to be better.
    3. This is a belief in fate
    4. This is a belief in fate.

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  8. Gymrat's avatar Gymrat says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:39 am
    1. not fate, it did not seem like him and his father did not get along but more scared to tell his dad because it is his dad
    2. fate
    3. fate
    4. fate

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  9. The Gamer 2.0's avatar The Gamer 2.0 says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:40 am
    1. It’s fate
    2. It’s fate 
    3. It’s fate
    4. It’s fate 

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  10. BreakingBad45's avatar BreakingBad45 says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:41 am
    1. I don’t think it is fate I think Jay just needed to be bailed out and had his father come to him
    2. fate
    3. fate
    4. No I think they were lucky to get wealth and be influential

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  11. holistic25's avatar holistic25 says:
    April 15, 2024 at 8:41 am
    1. This is not fate. It was just simply a result of careless driving. He was lucky he wasn’t hurt and was bailed out. Whether he chooses to learn from this incident will be up to him.
    2. Despite this tragic situation, this was purely a result of a momentary incident in which Kay was drinking intoxicated and Jay appeared to be driving recklessly. Simply unfortunate one car was there at the same time as the other.
    3. Although Jay can’t change the accident and the death of Kay’s daughter, the situation better propel Jay to do something for his life. He was mainly responsible for the accident due to his reckless driving. God didn’t have him kill somebody to make Jay’s life more valuable.
    4. This wasn’t a case of fate. It was simply a conscious decision by Zed at the time to learn from the tragic situation and make good with what he could.

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  12. Unknown's avatar Anonymous says:
    April 15, 2024 at 9:29 am
    1. it was his fault, he caused the accident. But, was lucky enough to have no injuries

    2. this is fate.

    3. this is fate

    4. This is fate

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  13. toetio's avatar toetio says:
    April 30, 2024 at 3:03 pm
    1. Zed is asking for an explanation of what happened, and how his son could have potentially caused the accident. He is not expressing a belief in fate.
    2. It seems like Kay is expressing a belief in fate. She seems to think that the accident happened so she would reconnect with her family and quit her bad habits, not because she was drinking. In other words, she believes the effect of the event was the reason for the event.
    3. Jay expresses a belief in fate.
    4. This could express a belief in fate depending on how you look at it. Dee could be saying that their success was due to their hard work, or she could be saying that they we predestined to end up this way.

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