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También en Español You may have noted that we never speak of “fate” and are constantly speaking of “destiny.” This is a very important distinction in our understanding of how the world actually works. As you become more familiar with the concept of destiny, as we use the word here at VenusPlusX.org, you will see how it assists understanding of the nature of progressive change, as well as providing a positive vision of the future.
Many people hold a viewpoint they consider “rational” or “causal.” They say that what happens next is directly determined by what was just happening and what’s going on right now, so that effects follow from causes in a linear positive direction in time. They claim that, although the future is not accurately predictable, it is nonetheless causally determined. Although they understand and admit the impossibility of accurately determining the state of the present with sufficient precision to accurately predict the future, they still cling to the irrational belief that, if they could do so, they would be able to predict the future accurately.
From this viewpoint, human life has no purpose other than the fulfillment of causation, causation in which human beings are able to participate to some degree to obtain desired physical results. People who adopt this viewpoint see the achievement of a desired result as the culmination of a series of actions, which, taken together, collectively cause the result. Thus, to achieve a desired result, we decompose the result into elements for which an achievable cause can be found. Such an approach is called “analytic” because it depends on the analysis of the structure of the desired outcome and the network of causes that (hopefully) will produce it. Such thinking is also called “reductionist.”
There is another, fully rational way of understanding how things will work. This approach considers the destined end state to be linked to current events by a “force of destiny,” a force that appears to carry pattern backwards through time, imposing it on the past, in order that destiny may be fulfilled. In effect, destiny is a future universe state and the force of destiny is causation expressed outside the range of knowable causes for the observer embedded in time. The necessity of a terminal event shapes unmeasured parameters to obligate all possibilities to a stable outcome, regardless of the factual event. Such force does not override time-forward causation. Rather it shapes and limits the actual active form of the experienced causation. The force of destiny obligates operative causes that are intrinsically unknowable because they are literally (relativistically) unobservable, lying beyond the range of immediately available information.
Most people who are aware of the rigor of so-called “mathematical logic” think of formal geometric proofs, analytic geometric proofs, and simple if-then-else inference logic. Otherwise apparently informed people seem quite unaware of the entire domain of “modal logic,” which provides mechanisms for formal reasoning about possibility vs. necessity and other complementary qualities of being. Such logic provides rigor to certain absolute concepts extending far beyond classical “truth values” of logical statements.
Just as the concept of fate is well modeled by the logical pressure of sequential material implication, the concept of destiny is well modeled by teleological tension within a chain of necessities, which can require the totality of space and time (including domains beyond any possibility of immediate observation) to bring into existence possibilities unpredictable and unknowable from the historic record, no matter how complete. And it is the unification of two patterns in the present that defines us. One pattern flows forward in time from the past, changing to incorporate caused events. The other pattern flows backwards in time from the future, requiring certain qualities to be present in the temporal present.
The manner in which destiny emerges is “synthesis,” a complementary term to analysis. Observable present is the intersection of the possibilities emerging from causation with the necessities that synthesize the force of destiny. In time the universe progresses from an initial state to a final state, attaining destiny through the accumulation of causes. The causes that matter are the ones that recognize free will decisions by individual personalities. And the domain and range of such decisive causes necessarily link up to achieve the fulfillment of destiny.
This means that human free will is a reality with at least one bit of information content—either to do the right thing or to do anything else. But this also means that, no matter what the decisions of any collection of actors, nevertheless, destiny will be attained; therefore, since causation is preserved, the timelines of the universe appear continuous viewed from either direction.
To summarize:
- Destiny is as real as history and gives purpose to existence
- Destiny is more important, flexible, and significant than history because it is achieved through personal choice
- Aggregated personal free will cannot violate either causation or inevitability
Humanity progresses by reaping the results of its actions; however, the productivity and value of those results is assured by adherence to the force of destiny.
–Dan Massey