“Everything Happens for a Reason.”
Does that quote indicate a belief in Fate? Consider the following scenarios.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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, “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.
Dev
Joe Gramigna
adamreim
alexmoran17
alivewit55
americangods01
anonymous123
Anonymous
azntaco
belldere
bigcounrty609
bigfoot9
bj112295
blueee04
breadpatrol99
brxttyb
calamariii
cfalover
charlieclover
cherries267
chickendinner
chickennugget246
chickennugget444
clevelandbrown03
cocochanel715
comatosefox
crossanlogan
cswilliams15
dancingueen
disneylover2002
doglover846
dontquoteme187
douglasadams525
dt2018
faded26
fatjoe000
friendoftacos
frogs02
fromcasablanca
fulcrum66
g00dsoup
giants19
gingerbreadman27
girlno3
gobirds115
goodmusician440
gracchusbabeuf
hiralp365
ifurreadingthisits2l8
ilovedunkinoverstarbucks
ilovenas
imaspookyghost
inspireangels
JalenHurts4Mvp
jasrielle2
jcirrs
jonnyb25
eagles21
kilotoon
kingofcamp
krackintheneck
Philip Ebenezer
Lily4Pres
littlecow24
ljkvng34
lokiofasgard24
luckyleprechaun1
marinebio18
mellowtacos
miliwawa
minutemen14
mossmacabre
music0392
mymomshouldhavenamedmegrace
ndb1996
neferpitou626
nugget114
oatmealvibes
ohearnj8
palal24
peachesxo
philsfan1133
pinkheart84
pinkmonkey32
pitandthependulum22
queenrandom04
RowanAnnouncer
Rowan27
rowanluver29
rowanstudent6
saltysurfer322
saycheese03
Senpai Pio
sixfortyfive645
sortableelms
spaghettitacosforthesoul
strawberryfields4
suedejackson
sunflower0311
sunshinegirl457
tarheel1999
teddysdoggydaddy
thatwonguyy
themildewmuncher7
Public Display Name
thirdlady226
tlap23
tmjj4345
toastedflatbread22
tpaz1
tristanb50
twofoursixohtwo
tyblicky2001
venom2929
vicarij0
wakeup5am
Water
wildcuttlefish
wizzard201
xchuki
Lunaduna
zeek
ziggy026
zinny11
zipemup1
zoeyzoey0210
zzbrd2822
Counterintuitive Spring 2023 
1.) This quote does not indicate a belief in fate. This is because there is not an explanation given of why the accident happened before the father responded with “everything happens for a reason”, making me believe that he did not say it because he believed it, he said it to reassure his son and the mistake he made.
2.) This quote indicates a belief in fate.
3.) This quote indicates a belief in fate.
4.) This quote indicates a belief in fate.
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1. No he does not believe in faith. seems like he is just disappointed.
2. Yes she does.
3. Yes he does.
4. No She does not seem like she knows that they worked hard to get to where they were
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1. “Everything happens for a reason” is not used to express a belief in fate, but is instead used to avoid responsibility. Rather than own up to his mistakes, Jay says this as a defense of his actions because what happened was out of his control
2. This is an expression of belief in fate as Kay will stop drunk driving because of her injuries and death of her daughter. Everything happens for a reason because this will teacher Kay not to drink and drive again and push her to stop others from doing the same
3. This is an expression of belief in fate because God spared Jay so that he can learn from his mistakes and use his life to better the world
4. This is an expression of fate as they never would have gotten rich or had a reason to start their organization had it not been for the actions of Zed’s previously reckless son
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1-I don’t think this was necessarily an expression of fate. I think he was just asking his son what he did to cause the car accident.
2-This one is a declaration of fate.
3-This one is a declaration of fate. The fact that he has knowledge/belief in God and yet doesn’t really change his behavior at all shows its fate.
4-I think this one is sort of a declaration of fate.
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1. 1 does not show a belief in fate, he’s asking him why he crashed
2. 2 does show a belief in faith because she believes she crashed so she could get her life back on track
3. Yes but irresponsibly he thinks everything is up to god.
4. I think yes and no from the perspective of Dee without fate happening and leading her to care about safe driving she would never get the chance or reason to create the business. the father is not going by faith because in his sense these are the steps you take after your teenager crashes because you didn’t teach them well enough.
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1. Jay causes a traffic accident to injure two people: Not Fate
I don’t believe this is fate because this is just the making of a bad decision in the moment.
2. Kay in her hospital room: Fate
Now looking at this one, if she was drinking before the accident, this could have been a wake-up call for her to get better. But it is still a result of making bad choices.
3. Jay sees that the daughter dies from his mistake: Not fate
This just declares that he’s trying to cope with doing this by bringing a higher power into it, like God. Saying he has no responsibility for this is outrageous.
4. Zed and Dee start a foundation and become successful off of it: Fate
This is more fate to me since because this happened, they looked to better the situation and help people. But again if it wasn’t a bad choice by Jay, then fate alters.
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1. This is not an expression of belief in fate because the statement says that Jay causes a traffic accident because of something he did, which was reckless driving. Jay’s dad asks him why this happened, showing that Jay was clearly in control of what he did and it wasn’t fate that determined it.
2. This is not an expression of belief in fate because Kay believes he accident was determined by fate so her life would change for the better.
3. This is an expression of a belief in fate, as Jay doesn’t take responsibility for what he has done because he believes it’s all in God’s will. He doesn’t reflect on the incident and just thinks that whatever happens in his life is already determined and out of his control.
4. This is an expression of a belief in fate, because Dee believes that Jay’s irresponsibility was planned so that the family would have great success later in life.
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1. Not fate, Zed wants to know what happened. Literally, “everything happens for a reason”. As in, tell me what on earth happened.
2. Not fate, this is more the consequences of her actions making her decide to live in a more responsible way. There is no credit given to a higher power.
3. fate
4. fate, even though they labored to achieve their success, the daughter suggests that this course in life was fated.
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1. I don’t think this is a belief in faith I think they just want to avoid being responsible for the situation
2. This is a belief in faith
3. This is also a belief in faith
4. I don’t think this one is a belief in faith they talk about the hard work it took to get there it wasn’t just luck
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1) I would say that the first one was not faith-related but the dad just told his son that so it would comfort him. I say this because they make no mention of God in the situation.
2) The second one was situational because if the accident never happened Kay would still probably have driven under the influence until she got caught or died.
3) Again number 3 is not an indication of faith to me it seems like someone who wants to disassociate his action and put it on God. I say this because it says he never changed, and to believe in God you have to change for the better.
4) Now after you read all 4 you can say that everything does happen for a reason because if this never happened the dad wouldn’t have been motivated to be a better father. He also starts an organization that helps more people than the ones he hurt. But to be honest it’s all in how you look at it. You can turn a negative into a positive or you can continue to stay negative in a bad situation.
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1. The dad believes that his actions were not meant to happen but the outcome of his surviving was the response to everything happening for a reason, the reason for his surviving could have many meanings.
2. She also uses the method as a coping mechanism for her poor decisions of drinking and driving. Little signs of expressions of a belief
3. There is no expression of a belief in fate in this, Jay used the phrase as an excuse for everything that had happened. It wasn’t his fate to survive, but he was lucky enough to have survived without injuries. He just happened to get lucky, with no indication that it was his fate
4. In the scenario, the dad realizes he failed to educate his son and make him more knowledgeable, so he then goes to the approach of guiding his daughter to create an organization that helps prevent events such as the one Jay had committed. It was the father’s fate to help his son get out on bail and to start an organization that would help others avoid what happened to Jay, the result of this action not only gave the dad and his daughter riches and fame but it proved they were supposed to succeed of this.
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1. No this is not a belief in faith. Did not want to take any responsibility.
2. This is a belief in faith.
3. This is a belief in faith.
4. No this is not a belief in faith. Just realized he failed.
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1. I feel like this is not a belief in fate in this scenario I feel like instead the dad is saying that something Jay did had to have been the reason for the accident.
2. I believe that this quote indicates a belief in fate. Kay is saying that this accident was meant to happen so that she would stop making reckless choices.
3. This one is obviously a belief in fate because Jay believes that everything happens according to God will.
4. This one is also a belief in fate because what I think Dee is saying is that the accident occurred so that they would create this organization and potentially save others.
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1. This does not show a belief in fate. This seems more of a disappointed remark rather than showing an indication of fate.
2. This does not show a belief in fate. This wasn’t bound to happen…I think this shows more of a belief in destiny. To me, Kay knew what she did was wrong and she is bound to not make that mistake again.
3. This shows a belief in fate.
4. This shows a belief in fate.
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1) Not fate: Jay caused an accident.
2) Not fate: It is the consequences of Kay’s reckless actions and she used it as a way to help her bad habits.
3) I do believe that Jay feels it is “fate” because he decided that it is the road God has for him. Even if we see it as an excuse Jay sees it as fate.
4) Not fate: Dee knows how hard it was and how hard they worked for it.
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1. Zed is not referring to fate in the circumstances, however he is asking for the reason as to why Jay was driving recklessly.
2. Kay is a believer of fate. kay saw this horrible accident as reason to stop drinking and be more responsible
3. Jay is not referring to fate. Jay is looking at the situation from a religious point of view.
4. This is not fate. this is being thankful for a bad situation because it gave you a great outcome.
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1. This one is not fate, because it was said in needing an explanation, instead of meaning it was fate.
2. This one is fate.
3. This one is fate because he puts his life into God’s hands and choses to believe.
4. I think this is fate because the dad comes to a realization that he failed to raise a responsible son, so he wants to create an organization to help to prevent situations that his son has caused. This causes the father and the daughter to become successful.
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1. When the father says this phrase, it seems that he referring that the son cause the accident and now he is jail. He is telling him that these are the consequences of your actions because the son cause a traffic accident, and now he is in jail.
2. This phrase is used because her actions makes her feel guilty of her actions, it’s not a fate of belief
3. When this phrase was said, they meant it as a belief of fate since God had spare his life in this accident and believes has a reason for this.
4. I believe when mention this phrase, they meant it as a belief of fate. That because of all things that happen, they are where they are now like fate somehow.
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1. This example does not show fate and it seems like a disappointed remark to the situation.
2. In this example, Kay experiences a traumatic event that was caused by her irresponsible behavior. Due to the severity of her injuries she decided to change her behavior making an example of fate.
3. Jay believes God saved him from the accident which means this is an example of fate.
4. This is an example of fate because if Zed never raised his son irresponsibly, he would’ve never made a company devoted to driving safety.
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1. This is not an expression of a belief in fate because Jay causes a traffic accident that wounds others, so it is just causal.
2. This is an expression of a belief in fate because she is expressing that the accident occurred for the purpose of turning her life around.
3. This is an expression of a belief in fate because he believes that whatever occurs in his life is God’s will, so in a way, God and fate are connected.
4. This is not an expression of a belief in fate because they just worked hard to become influential, and there is no luck involved, which is causal.
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1) No it doesn’t, he’s referring to the car accident happening for a reason, not fate.
2) Yes, she feels the accident and almost dying helped her life get back together, it’s fate.
3) Yes, he thinks whatever happens to him is gods will, “fate.”
4) No, they’re referring to their hard work paying off.
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1. This isn’t an expressed belief in fate, he could be using “Everything happens for a reason” in the same way as “Actions have consequences.” Believing that he survived because of a higher power is a little ridiculous seeing as how he injured another driver in the process.
2. This usage seems to me a more expressed belief in fate, her optimistic attitude indicates that she is looking at it as being given a second chance.
3. Even though he doesn’t change his behavior, it can’t be ignored that the way he looks at life has been changed severely altered. Knowing he can’t control everything is very important to living a happier life, and indicates a belief in fate.
4. I wouldn’t see this as a toast of fate, their fortune has more to do with their hard work than fate.
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