E-Answer.Net

You are obviously from the "life sucks and then you die" school of beliefs. That's true to a degree, but you have some influence over how sucky it is (for you in your current mental state, less sucky is the best you can hope for). It is not pre-determined, though many people agree that it is. In truth, that is an excuse for every way you have fallen short. How can you be blamed for your sucky life? I mean...it's pre-determined, right. Nothing is your fault, right? Wrong! That kind of thinking breeds on itself and multiplies, like a cancer. You are responsible for yourself, cheif. Not your parents, not your school, not your government.



Whining and wallowing in self-pity and misery gets you nowhere. Here's what you do, bucko. Shake it off. Slap yourself. Splash some cold water on your face and get out of the house. So many young people (not all of them) today are so full of angst and sellfishness it's enough to make ME kill MYself. It's pathetic. You come off as crybabies and whiners. You don't come off like you think; as tortured artistic souls. Knock it off and do something constructive to improve your situation. There are truly happy, content people in the world who made themselves that way. It wasn't pre-determined. There is no reason you can't be one of the happy ones. Read a good book for crissake. Go to a funny movie. Learn things. Read a self-improvement book. Believe me, your outlook is paramount. Be a "decent person" to your friends (if you have any left) and the people you meet. Good things will start will to happen for you, and that will cause more good things to happen, and still more and more, like an avalanch. Carpe diem, my friend, seize the day. You create your own atmosphere and you have to breathe it. Don't make it toxic for you and the one's around you. You need a new attitude. So take a couple of deep breaths and get cracking. It's a long road ahead, and yes, it's full of pitfalls, disappointment and heartache. But it's also full of mystery, discovery, love, and fun times. Bon voyage.

ok, how is this a question? and while i agree life is predetermined, i would not say life sucks, becuase if you believe in that, karma should come into play.

You wrote, "This world really sucks, I have nothing more to say."



And then you went and spoiled it all by adding more, twice.



How can I trust someone who is so inconsistent?

I agree with almost everything you say, but that doesn't change the fact that there's no better alternative. We live for lack of a better idea.

That is not a question. It is your opinion. This is my answer.

yes sometimes life does suck but you have to make the most of what you got... get out and enjoy yourself.

i'll bet your the life of the party aint ya

there is no point whatsoever. We're all just cattle recycling energy at the surface of the earth

It's good the world sucks, or else we'd all fall off.....

What makes you so certain that everyone's life is entirely pre-determined?



Say this is true though....



We may know that everything is predetermined, but we do not know what is going to happen, until it happens. I.e. we cannot accurately predict the future. Thus everything being predetermined does not devalue life in general. It is the not knowing what will happen tomorrow that makes life interesting. If we knew our entire life before it happened, then predetermination would be relevant and would suck. But as we do not know, it does not matter.



Everyone gets to choose. You may argue that their choice has already been predetermined, but as nobody knows what they will choose until they have chosen, making choices is still enjoyable. And thus predetermination is irrelevant. It doesn't detract from our enjoyment of life and our enjoyment of having and making choices.



Choose to forget about predetermination. Choose to go out and spend some time with your friends. Choose to do things you enjoy, things that make you happy and make you feel good and you will realise that this world does not suck :O)

You do to have choices in life! And who cares if your ugly someone out there will find you beauitful. and if your that worried about it theres such thing as plastic surgery. And as for God. How do you think the planet was made, you were created(and dont say by your mom and dad because God had to help) So yes there is a God. And beleive it or not there is good in life. You just have to find things that you like. Sports either playing or watching. Site seeing, reading, writting, taking walks, spending time with family, and much more! and as to how smart you are you can decide how smart you are. you can study get extra help in things and to some people how smart you are might be really dumb but to others you might be the smartest person they know.

Nothing is a big deal until you decide to make it a big deal, and the stuff your talking about is really no big deal. Your life sucks, sure it does. but I bet there is some victim of child abuse who gets beat up by his drunken father nightly... while his Valium addicted mother laughs about it.... out there who thinks you have it pretty good.

I bet there is some poverty stricken 11 year old -who doesn't have access to a computer- would like to trade places with you.

I bet there is a homeless war vet with no legs who would love to write his story on-line.

The difference between your story and theirs?

They are making the best out of what they have.....

So, thanks for the sermon there Rev, but my answer is... Nawww, I'm just not believing it. But thanks for the invitation.

Yes. Sometimes it does.

But think about it with me: the hard choices are determined for you. By what criteria would you have chosen your physical self? How would you have known what you wanted? You would not have had enough personal experience; so your parents, in effect, got to do that work for you.



Now, you can choose what you want to do with this life that's been given you. Don't convince yourself that there is no purpose; there is. Life's challenge is finding it. That's the part over which we have some choice and control.



And sometimes, you are correct, that responsibility, as you say, sucks.

How smart you are? OK some people are naturally but anyone can work for it. All of that stuff is external and non of it is what you can control so accept it and embrace it and focus on what you can control. 'Life sucks' because you are making it 'suck' you are in control of alot of things and these things can bring you contentment. Happiness is an unword in my opinion because it is a state of mind which is easily altered and transient.



Make yourself 'happy' by doing what will make you 'happy' that you can control. Let be what you can't.

I agree with you, up to a point. As to whom we are, you are right about that. Sometimes people come into play to help us, if we let them. I admit, life does suck though at times. I don't agree with you on choices though. We do make our choices, wether they are good or bad in life, but maybe you are referring to what you are born with. As to God, well, that depends on what you want to believe and don't believe. Believe it or not, there is some good in life. I think it depends on experiences and what happens to you as a child.

Very good, you are becoming a self realized soul. Good thinking. Human form of life is meant for that, no just eating, mating, sleeping and defending and working like an a$$.

If life is predestined, that means the predestination has some thing to do with your past life, other wise, how can be predestined?

Every one of us is fully under the control of material nature. There is no question of independence. Our condition is just like that of a horse or a bull bound by the nose. The animal has to move according to how the driver pulls on the rope; it has no independence.

So, our so-called declaration of independence—"There is no God, there is no controller; we can do whatever we like" is all ignorance. And in ignorance we irresponsibly do anything we like, and then we become entrapped in the karmic reactions and suffer.

Our life depend of three elements—fate, effort, and time—conjointly affect the course of one’s life. He gives the example of a farmer, whose crop depends on three factors: planting, rain, and time. Planting represents effort, and rain represents fate. If the farmer plants but there’s no rain, he’ll have no crop. And if it rains but he hasn’t planted, he’ll have no crop. Both fate and effort are required, as is time.

If we act properly and perform pious activities, we are awarded good fortune, and if we act sinfully, we have to suffer. Over time, good fate manifests as situations favorable to our endeavor and bad fate as unfavorable situations. Destiny may even give us enjoyment or suffering without much endeavor. Winning a lottery, being born in a rich family, or diseased body are examples of this.

According to our past activities, remembrance and forgetfulness are supplied to us and are revealed as our propensities, desires, and aspirations. What we ultimately get is a combination of what we desire and what we deserve. For instance, many people would like to be millionaires, but only a few will work toward the goal, and only a small fraction of them will actually achieve it. On the other hand, some people are born to inherit wealth without any endeavor. Performing pious activities is like making a deposit into the karma-account: When the deposit matures, one may withdraw it and enjoy it. So one who desires to be wealthy and has enough pious credits may be born wealthy, another with fewer credits may have to work for it, and yet another with insufficient credits may not achieve it despite hard work.

Destiny sets the stage for us to perform our activities. A cow tethered to a post is free to move only as far as the rope will go. Similarly, the scope of our present endeavors depends on our past activities. A person born in a rich family is offered greater opportunity and freedom than one in a poor family. An extreme example is the animal or plant forms of life, which a soul gets as a severe reaction to past sinful activities. Here the living entity has practically no free will and simply acts out the acquired modes of material nature. That is why the human form of life is considered so special. Only in this form does the soul have some degree of freedom to shape its destiny. But with free will also comes accountability, which is why only in the human form does one accrue good or bad karma. The law of karma does not apply to animal or plant life, where the soul’s promotion to higher life forms is automatic.

Even though being in an accident, suffering from a disease, being poor, being rich, and so on, are all predestined, that does not mean we can now start driving negligently, ignore our health, and stop taking care of ourselves. Let’s assume we do start driving negligently. The law of karma dictates that this irresponsible action will yield an undesirable reaction. It may be an accident, or it may be something else. But it will come.

The law of karma is so complex that conclusively determining the precise outcomes of our activities is impossible. Ultimately, our endeavor shapes our destiny, and that is why the scriptures give us so many guidelines about what to do and what not to do.