Many religions say that God gives to person everything that he or she needs to pass through his or her life on the Earth (such as material and spiritual facilities, and I am sure that many of you have clearly felt in some situations how to be “in God’s hands” and till which extremely highest level everything can depend only on God’s wish).

Other religious practices say that everything in our life depends only on us, and whatever we wish we are able to achieve (by labor, activity, studying etc.) Where is the “golden mean?” In general, does anything depend on people? What do you think?

Or there are only two opposite beliefs – one is that everything depends on God, and we need to believe that “our destiny is already written” and God manages all our activities – gives suggestions, direction, saves us within the frameworks of our living root; or another belief is absolute confidence in yourself (I will build my life only as I wish)? So, what God wishes from us?

There are many speeches in the difficult situations like “it’s his destiny”, “it was already decided before and he couldn’t change anything”, “God gave-God took”, and so on and so far. Do you believe it is so? Then, probably, for example, if you see the deep pit on the road, then it is ok to go and fall there thinking “anyhow God will decide will I stay alive or not as nothing depends on me?” Or you will try to overcome the obstacle? Generally – are you fatalist or not, and which circumstances made you think so, may be – any examples from the living experience?

I think it's pretty silly to write off all life events as "fated". Were you "fated" to take a wrong turn on a roadtrip and end up detouring and having to pee in the bush? Probably not. Well, I suppose even that example you could argue as fate. Because maybe it taught you to always go to the loo before long cartrips, but I think my point is still valid. Not everything fits into a divine plan, at least, to my mind. I think it's easy to believe massive events are fated, events like births, deaths, marriages, meetings with important people... But most of the routine stuff that happens to you on an everyday basis cannot be destiny. I have a better example, having cereal for breakfast cannot be part of your divine plan. Whether you have the cereal or not is completely unimportant to your life. I do believe that some things in life are fate. Sometimes you meet a person under such bizarre conditions, it can be nothing other than fate. For instance, when I met my current boyfriend, we were in the same resort town, had arrived by the same bus, stayed at the same hotel, and went home on the same bus. How ridiculous is that? I mean, I could've booked my bus for another day! Or he could've stayed at a different hotel. It seems the stars had aligned.... But no, I don't think any and every little tiny thing that happens in my life is fated or predecided by an omniscient God.

I think the best story about this whole thing is as follows: a man is in the midst of a flood, he climbs onto his roof and he calls to God to save him. A powerboat comes past, and offers him to come on board. He turns them down, because he's waiting for God. Then a rescue helicopter comes, and again, he turns the people down because he thinks God will come rescue him. Eventually, the man drowns in the flood. He ends up in Heaven and asks God, "Why did you abandon me?" and God replies: "But what about the helicopter and the boat?"

The moral of that little interlude is that, although God has a great measure of control on your life, it's up to you whether you take the fate God has laid out for you, or accept the opportunities placed on your path. You can view the death of a loved one as the end of the world and commit suicide, or you can see it as a chance to grow as an individual, to become a better person, maybe to help people in a similar situation to them. I believe big things in life do happen for a reason, but how one reacts to them is an individual choice. God provided the man in my little story with a chance to live and be happy, yet he turned those opportunities down. That choice depended on him. As a person, you can take charge of your destiny. Yes, there will still be a measure of serendipity and chance and fate to it. But there is a reason it's called 'YOUR' fate, and not the fate... It's up to you to own it.

What is destiny? The fate is a set of events in a person's life. Destiny is our past, present and future. What do determine the line of human destiny? On this topic different points of view exist. Some people believe that our fate is determined to a person from birth. Some people believe that man creates his own destiny. Which of the two points of view is correct?
It seems to me that in our life everything is mixed, and probably some mane stages of our life are determined by destiny. But majority of circumstances in life depends on us and we can determinate our life.
We have to be strong and straggle till the end. And anyway we don't know what way can bring us to?
Maybe the hardest way leads to the happiness. So, we do not have to give up.
On the other side I'm sure that in our life there are some moments that can be called luck. And while luck favours a person, the things person's life are going quite well because in these moments everything just happens without effort. However, luck can turn away from a person at any unexpected moment. So we can't relay on it and have to do life backups.
The only thing that I'm not absolutely sure is whether our death is determinated by fate or something can be changed.

I think that you need to have faith in God; however, you need to be active too. And you also need to distinguish God’s direction and your own egoism. People often try to made deep impact on their own life, for example, through trying to push the unnecessary situation forward, or trying to follow it on any costs, but same time they don’t wish to notice good chances God give them and miss it. Because of this, they leave their direction, or their living path. And they start to walk where no any path, but only pools and logs are on the grounds.

For example, many try to save the relationships which are almost finished, and they understand that there is no any place for each other in plans of both for the future. However, they don’t let the partner go, even if, probably, they could get better one after this. The experience they had could help to compare, and to get exactly the best one beloved person for them.

God gives us everything that we need, however, we start to need more, or start to wish to do only that we desire. Getting the things which are mostly out of our expectation is the result. You need to overcome the difficulties, however, to understand that there is a God’s will.

I think the only thing that depends on us is our happiness.
The others we almost cannot influence on.
What kind of life most of us consider as happy and successful?
Money and career success, reach and big house, love and a happy family with children, our health and health of our family, loyal friends, travels and new experiences. Someone can add: self-realization and creativity. Another part says it is important to contribute to the community!
By this list majority of people can be be completely satisfied. Here it is an abstract representation of everyday happiness.
But what about those who are having the above and are not happy?
So what is happiness?
Happiness - is a particular state. It appears from nowhere to nowhere, and disappears in most people.
So happiness can be found only when person is in harmony with himself and with the world, life, when you can meet the needs of existing opportunities, life, when let live others and at the same time don't depend on the other people only to the extent that is inherent in the life of society.
So the main thing for happiness is to find harmony with your internal life and this is what we can do and we must strive to do so

Hello! I think that all what we have depend on people, or it is better to say, almost all.
Some people believe in destiny. It means that your life is already settled and you can do nothing with it. I can not agree with such statement. We can and we should build our life in the way that we want to see it. Life is a game and we are the gamers. We should play personally and take responsibility of it. Of course, there are some events which don’t depend of us, but we can influence the effects of such events.