Everything Happens For A Reason

I used to buy into that. 

Now, when I hear people say it or read it online in a meme or something, it just makes me cringe. I am now able to see how absurd that notion is. There is absolutely no proof of a reason for anything. Life is very random and that is very hard for humans to grasp let alone accept. 

I have been thinking again, about the ideas of determinism and free will and my understanding of it has changed a bit. I think that at this point I can get behind the idea of determinism. I know that free will is bull shit. There is no such thing as free will. What I mean by that is, the idea of determinism is how I would define the notion that when I make a decision, it was 100% based on all of my previous experiences and my knowledge and how my brain works and there is no possibility for me to have made a different choice than the one I made. What I do NOT mean by determinism is this sort of romantic idea of a destiny or an ultimate purpose. 

The way I am understanding it, the determinism has nothing to do with some great divine plan, but just the notion that I make the only choices in life that I can make, based on all of my collective knowledge and experience and all the things that led me to that exact moment. And if it is the case I cannot possibly make any other choice, that means that I have no true free will.

People love to thank God for anything good that happens in their life as them being favored or "blessed" by God and when something awful happens (especially when it happens to a good person) they explain it away as "everything happens for a reason." 

I saw a photo of an owl that had flown into a helicopter of a firefighter that was fighting a forest fire. The owl stayed in the aircraft with the man and a commenter declared that God had saved that owl by having him fly into the helicopter. Praise the Lord! Everything happens for a reason. Never mind the millions of animals he DIDN'T save. Never mind the homes he didn't save. Never mind he could have literally just sent some rain to put out the fires. But, no. An owl is smart enough and lucky enough to escape and we give all the credit to God. 

I see this way of thinking for what it is. It is simply a coping mechanism to avoid harsh truths about the brutality and the unfairness of life. Truly there must be a reason and a purpose. There must be good and evil. There must be reward and punishment. There must be karma. 

People talk about everything happening for a reason with so much confidence. They speak of it as if it is the truth. The problem is, it is a very easy thing to poke holes in.