Do things really happen for a reason? (PART 1)

If I had a nickel for everytime I've heard "I believe everything happens for a reason..." or "Nothing happens by chance..." I would be writing this from my log cabin in the mountains.

Does everything happen for a "reason"? Well, I would say that depends on what someone is referring to as the reason. I think it's fairly safe to say that in our world things typically "happen" because something "caused" them to happen. The fuzzy world of subatomic phenomena aside, in the macroworld, the 8-ball went in the corner pocket because the cue ball I hit with my pool cue struck it in a particular way. If *that* is what people mean when they summon this cliché, then I would be inclined to agree. Yes, things do happen for a reason: something caused them to happen.

But we all know that is not what is meant.

While the chain of events for most effects can be traced to some initial natural cause, when it cannot, we either begin investigating for the cause, or we decide that the cause was something supernatural. Now, when it comes to invoking the supernatural or the divine to explain "why" things happened the way they did, there are basically three ways that people reach such a conclusion. First, some only decide that God (or some other supernatural force) caused some event or phenomenon when it seems that all natural explanations have been exhausted. Many people consider the phenomenon of human consciousness evidence of divine cause since, as of yet, a complete scientific explanation has not been formulated -- or at least it is not yet reproducible in the lab (though who knows what the future holds?). Similarly, many dub an event "miraculous" since, at least on the surface, it appears as if there is no other immediate explanation. "Rippley's Believe it or Not" is full of these kinds of anecdotes. Though thorough investigation of cause and effect is sometimes not done, there is at least usually some kind of thinking involved.

Second, there are those who immediately decide that because some event seems unlikely, unusual or is grandiose in some pronounced way that it simply must have a supernatural cause. That is, they are not interested in actual investigation for a natural cause since a supernatural one is more exciting, and it evokes mystery and a sense of awe and wonder. For example, when the shape of the Virgin Mary appears in someone's Belgian waffle, and hundreds of people make their pilgrimage to lay flowers and lift prayers to said waffle... obviously they are much more interested in believing that Mary likes to appear to us in breakfast foods (or office windows, or tree trunks, etc...) than in considering that the wafflemaker caused this random hodge-podge of bumps, curves, and shapes in a waffle (that should really just be eaten) but that our pattern-seeking brains "see" the Virgin Mary due to the influence of culturally induced ideas and beliefs. Of course, this example is an easy target, but human beings are chock full of ideas about the supernatural, so the trigger is always back, awaiting the opportunity to label some odd or strange event as supernatural in cause and/or effect...many times before we think rationally about it at all!

Finally, there is a hybrid option that both appeals to our common sense as well as to our penchant for seeking the supernatural in a natural world. This way of judging natural vs. supernatural causes is a little more subtle, it is very convenient, and also what's most likely meant by "everything happens for a reason". What is it? Well, it is the belief that although effects have causes in this world, there rides atop of (or underlies or is interwoven into) all causes and effects a divine "hand" such that all things are either literally caused by God or allowed by God. Therefore, all events in history are actually part of some overall "divine plan"; hence, all things happen for a reason...that reason being God's blueprint for history, or as some prefer, God's will. Now, how one defines "God" may vary -- for some a personal Being, for others an ultimate "Mind", for yet others, just some unconscious brute fact that is the basis for all existence, etc... -- but in the end, this idea is the dominant one behind the belief in question.

The popularity of this belief is not surprising; however, niether is it scrutinized for internal consistency very often. The reason? Because it provides a kind of comfort to many people, even an explanation, for notable events in our lives...and most often the not-so-good ones. And who wants to question something that brings personal peace-of-mind, right? After all, the good things in life need little more than celebration and perhaps a prayer of thanksgiving for those so inclined. But the bad things in life -- some of them *very* bad -- often defy reasonable explanations. This defiance taxes our minds and bodies as we try to understand certain tragedies. Sometimes we even know *what* caused a tragedy (say, a fatal car accident or cancer), but simply cannot get our minds around *why* it happened. And why would we wonder why? Because tragedy is itself tragic to us because it doesn't seem fair; it doesn't follow the natural course of life we have come to expect; it shatters our dreams and hopes into pieces that we are powerless to mend. When someone dies at 88 years old, we may miss them, but their death is hardly a surprise and sometimes even a bittersweet event. When someone dies at 45 or 25 or 5 years old, however, we fumble for reasons to justify it in our grieving. We grope for some kind of comfort, some kind of explanation, some kind of meaning. Thus, there is this worldview that insists that all things happen for "some kind of reason" which has nestled within it a quick answer: you may not understand it, but God does, and God is good and God is in control, and God knows what it best. The "reason" then is rooted in the belief that a benevolent God (or some other supernatural force) knows what's going on even if we don't...at least we don't know yet. So, we try to take comfort in the one thing we feel we do know (or believe), the one thing to which we can default when we need to do so: everything happens for a reason. We see it in the obvious ("8-ball, corner pocket"), so it must be so in the not-so-obvious too (an otherwise healthy five year old dies of brain cancer).

So, is this philosophy OK? Does it really work as well as we think? Could it even cause more pain than it salves for ourselves and others to whom we announce it? I'll give my opinion in the next blog (Part 2), but I'm sure you have some opinions of your own. I'd like to hear them.

Until Part 2,

- Kevin