speaking on religion. When someone says that when they die it must be for a reason that there time has come, that they had no say in it. That is true. Everything else, the way we live are lives, the things we do or don't do, that is not predicted, not set in stone. We are not robots doing whatever God tells us to do. We do what we want, we have free will, we just have to except what are actions bring.Ok so you say that your free will tells you to kill yourself! Sure you can do that, God will not stope you unless he has something else for you to do( IN that there could be a million possibilitys, reasons for you living) When it is said that you will die for a reason, or all the things you were ment to do here on earth was done and it is time for you to die. That doesn't mean that you will know the reason for you being alive or why you died. That is something you will never know untill you die! And either go to Heaven, or Hell.

You might rename you piece "Paradoxicaly Speaking"...

I might separate predictible from surprising. When something is surprising its natural to try to understand why. This applies to death in a BIG way.

My Mom died a few years ago. In her final days everything became a "reason." It was not acceptable to just deem it chance. Some reasons were scientific, but, though believable, were still not enough. In fact, I came to struggle as much with what would satisfy my search to understand then actually understanding...

There is a quote from Virginia Woolf's book _Orlando_ which seems to apply here. It says something like "Illusion is to the Soul as Atmosphere is to the Earth." Somehow it brings peace to me to believe that illusion is an essential part of life; it opens up every word and thought and dream of every individual on the planet; it allows poetry to truly mean something!

I love this kind of philosophical exploration...keep it up!

Interesting thoughts, Sunami. Chaos has some remarkable implications - for instance, who's to say that events which appear to occur in a predetermined fashion aren't merely chaotic constructs we've assigned a deeper meaning to?

Moreover, if you believe entirely in chaos and probability, the occurrence of two events is primarily ordained by chance. The entire idea of cause and effect is obliterated. All of our notions of science are summarily disproved - if you add HCl and NaOH, you get a reaction. Why? Coincidence. Next time you might get something different, but you don't. Odds are that you're not going to make a banana split mixing those two components, but, according to chaos theory, it's a distinct possibility.

It's the fact that it *doesn't* happen which is so interesting. If life is truly determined by random chance, then it's of a highly repetitive nature.

And, paradoxically, the scientific method applies best in explaining chaos. Logically, any theory can be accepted as truth until disproven (the ultimate goal of science is not to prove, but to *disprove*). Chaos by its very nature is impossible to disprove.

So is predetermination, fate, and all the rest of it.

I'm all for the idea that we're all of us alone in this big, ugly, self-destructing world. But that, in and of itself, fascinates me.

Being alone doesn't mean you have to reach out for the nearest warm body for comfort, after all. Sometimes it's better to retreat and observe from a distance.

I find it comforting to know that death is a possibility at any moment. Because if death is possibile, is at all *feasible*, so is anything and everything else. Life, love, or, more importantly, a chance that I "may already be a winner!". A million dollars? That'd be neat. :p

We can set out goals for ourselves, try to make order of chaos, and generally succeed. We're humans - we're remarkably good at ignoring what's right in front of us in favour of patterns that fit our preconceived notions of the world. Anything that doesn't fit can be explained away. It's what we do.

But we can also face the idea that we could get hit by a flaming bus walking out the door in the morning. And whether that means that we go all carpe diem and start living life to its fullest, or slump in a corner and write emo-suicide-poetry, we've got that little bit of foresight.

Science is admitting we know nothing and working from there. I take a scientific view of theology and life in general.

Some people's ultimate motivation is love, money, possessions, friendship.

Mine is knowledge. After all, there's so much out there to know...

Thus endeth the lesson. Apologies for preaching... I really need to start writing again. This is getting bad. :p

Keep it up!-Kagen

interesting, didnt offend me at all actually (then again, i am not religious so that might be why)

i dont know what i believe in really, i believe in superstition, picking up pennies depending on what heads up, holding breaths through tunnels and i always forget near cemetaries.but only at certain timesyour fate is your destiny which i believe you can really choose in the end.

(but if we go nowhere, that still has to be somewhere)