Are we predestined to be born from our parents?

  • Thread starter Thread starter The_Scott
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

The_Scott

Guest
Hello everyone,

Here’s an interesting question I was pondering. Are we predestined to be born from our individual parents?

Allow me to give an example. Before I was conceived, there were many times that either my mother or father were close to death (due to either complications of births of my sister and various miscarriages (as with my mother), or a very bad car accident (as with my father)).

If either my mother or father was to die before I was conceived, would I exist? When I mean "I", I obviously don’t mean in my physical form - same education, same look, same upbringing, et cetera. What I mean is: would my soul exist? If the answer is “no,” then are we predestined?

Similarly, to make it more complicated: Let’s say my grandfather (my dad’s dad) did indeed die during the Second World War, when his ship was sunk by a German U-boat. If you answered “yes,” to the above question, then my dad would not exist. If my dad did not exist, then I would not exist. Would this theory go back to countless generations?

Could this also be a reason against murder (besides the obvious), in that you take away countless potential lives? If a psychopath kills a twenty-year old boy today, has he killed all descendants?

Peace.
 
That’s actually a very interesting point you make. Though I personally don’t really see an answer that is within a mortals realm of understanding. Mainly because there are a lot of “ifs” based on this line of reasoning and with no way of ever knowing in these scenarios its hard to say one way or another. Though it certainly is thought provoking. But in a good way, not in a nonsensical way like you have that asian guy with white hair on the history channel talking about aliens. These same scientists deny the possibility of heaven and even God (not all of them but some) and yet at the same time they believe in the idea of infinite parallel universes. An example being you’re in need of a job. You walk by a store that has a help wanted position. In this universe you might walk right by it, not wanting a retail job. But in another parallel universe you walked into that store and applied. You didn’t get the job. Yet in another parallel universe you DID walk in the store and get the job.

So somewhere in one of the limitless universes (yes I said universes) out there ,I am the President of the United States. God help that universe! It’s kind of mind boggling to me. And really just kind of irritates me. Makes me ask myself, how can anyone in their right mind defend, let alone believe, something as farfetched as that and yet deny the existence of God. But I don’t mean to take the direction of this thread in another direction so I’m gonna leave it at that.
 
No. This is what we call an “argument from incredulity”. Simply because you exist and your forefathers before you dodged near death scenarios does not mean that you were predestined to be born:
  1. P is too incredible (or: I cannot imagine how P could possibly be true); therefore P must be false.
  2. It is obvious that P (or: I cannot imagine how P could possibly be false); therefore P must be true.
 
Similarly, to make it more complicated: Let’s say my grandfather (my dad’s dad) did indeed die during the Second World War, when his ship was sunk by a German U-boat. If you answered “yes,” to the above question, then my dad would not exist. If my dad did not exist, then I would not exist. Would this theory go back to countless generations?
Click to expand...
Let’s make it even more complicated. Suppose your father ate an extra leaf of lettuce on his salad one day, and on account of that and the other micro-changes it effected, when he had relations with your mother a different sperm cell “made it” to the ovum. Would that be you? Certainly not.

Yes, you were predestined to be born from your parents (and in the particular circumstances you were conceived), because, if the circumstances were different, it would not be you. The human soul needs a body to be individuated. Considered abstractly, without reference to a body, a human soul is just a rational ordering principle; there is no individuals.
Could this also be a reason against murder (besides the obvious), in that you take away countless potential lives? If a psychopath kills a twenty-year old boy today, has he killed all descendants?
Click to expand...
You can only kill those who exist. And if he kills a man and the man never has any children, it means he was predestined not to have any children. He is not taking anyone else’s life (besides of course the victim), even though he is preventing new people from being conceived. Is that a very serious offense? Well, unless the continued existence of mankind were at stake, I’d say it isn’t.
 
If you don’t have an itch, don’t scratch it or you will make a sore.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top