Fate, Example

<p>Another great point of difference between Fatalism and the Arcane Teaching is, that Fatalism insists upon arbitrary happenings and events, unrelated to, and in spite of, natural law and order. Fatalism denies that preceding events have any relation to the “fated happening,” and holds that the latter

would have happened in spite of any precedent event. In short, Fatalism makes the “fated happening a thing standing apart from the Chain of Sequence—something resulting from arbitrary and independent decree. Thus, Fatalism holds that one’s death, for instance, is “fated” (decreed) to happen in a certain way, at a certain time, and at a certain place, irrespective of the Law and Order of the Cosmos. Fatalism carried to an extreme shows the fallacy of the idea, as for instance the Mohammedan who refuses to allow his wound to be treated for the reason that if he is fated to die of the wound he will die, and if fated to live then he will recover without treatment. Or, the fanatics who refuse to run from a wild beast, on the same grounds. Or those who refuse to rescue a drowning man, lest they interfere with Fate.</p>