It goes by many names: Kismet. Adrsta. Predestination. Determinism. Destiny. "God's will."
The ancient Greeks dubbed it "Moirae" and gave it personality -- Fate. Or, rather, "The Fates," three female supernatural beings who spun, pulled and cut the literal threads of life that controlled when a person was born, what they did with their life and when and how they
died.
In an intriguing new film that explores themes of fate, destiny, divine and human (free) will, that same idea is called "The Adjustment Bureau" -- an otherworldly bureaucratic organization controlled by an unseen entity (or, perhaps, deity) known as "the Chairman."
A cadre of caseworkers in fedoras and dark suits -- a cross between G-men, IRS agents and guardian angels -- carry out the Chairman's will by making sure we humans don't stray off course. They track our movements and decisions on a kind of heavenly GPS device and make small "adjustments" to our decision-making processes.
The idea is to keep us on a predetermined track -- on a course we know nothing about and can do nothing to change.
In "The Adjustment Bureau," God's G-men carry out their duties on the periphery of the natural world where the curtain separating the here from there is as sheer as gossamer. They're around us all the time, everywhere, watching and, occasionally, tinkering as needed.
The clandestine machinations of the Adjustment Bureau are revealed to David Norris (Matt Damon) a young, rising political star running for U.S. Senate in New York. On the eve of his first unsuccessful bid for the Senate, Norris has a chance encounter in the men's room of the Waldorf Astoria with a beautiful ballet dancer, Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), who is hiding from hotel security after crashing a wedding reception upstairs.
Their attraction is immediate and powerful. Emily is charming, whimsical and passionate. David is enchanted and transformed by her honesty. They kiss -- instant soul mates -- and then Elise makes a Cinderella-esque exit without ever giving David her name.
That encounter was part of David's fate, we learn, but it was "fated" to just be a one-time thing. They were not "supposed" to meet again, ever. But when they do meet again on a city bus, David strays from his preordained course. That's when the Adjustment Bureau's agents
intervene.
The curtain is pulled all the way back when David walks in on Bureau agents "adjusting" his business partner in the conference room of their venture capital firm. He tries to run, but the Bureau minions capture him. In an empty warehouse, Bureau honcho Richardson (John Slattery of "Mad Men") explains to David what they're up to and then warns him not to tell a soul, unless he wants his brain to be rebooted (i.e. erased) at the Chairman's behest. He is not to see Elise again. It's not part of the plan.
But the heart wants what it wants, and David begins searching for Elise. After three years, he finds her on the street, and their bond is cemented a bit more than with just a kiss.
A romantic comedy wrapped in a science-fiction thriller with ample chase scenes and intrigue, "The Adjustment Bureau" traces David's attempts to alter his destiny, a move that will, he's warned, have significant consequences for the fate of his ladylove and the rest of the world.
The film poses a question that is left open-ended when the credits roll: Is it possible to change our fate?
The Chairman -- i.e., God -- has written the stories of our lives and the Big Story of the world. God knows how the story begins and ends. But is that story set in stone? If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, is there anything that happens in our lives that isn't part of God's
will and design?
Are human beings, created with a free will, capable of changing God's mind? And if we are, what does that say about the nature of the Divine?
It's a question theologians have wrestled with throughout the ages, without ever finding a true consensus. It's no wonder that the filmmakers appear unable -- or unwilling -- to provide a clear answer to such a spiritual/existential conundrum.
In the film, David appears to change his fate first by chance and then through his own volition.
His story changes. The Chairman does a rewrite. Or does he?
In a universe ordered by such an Almighty, perhaps there is no such thing as chance.
With the Chairman holding the eternal pen, what passes for serendipity might just be kismet in a clever disguise.
Follow Cathleen Falsani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/godgrrl
Carole Mallory: "The Adjustment Bureau Needs an Adjustment."
Marshall Fine: Movie Review: The Adjustment Bureau
The Adjustment Bureau Movie | Official Site for the The Adjustment ...
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) - IMDb
The Adjustment Bureau - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adjustment Bureau - Movie Trailers - iTunes
YouTube - 'The Adjustment Bureau' Trailer HD
The Adjustment Bureau Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
Which is, *we* aren't going to know the answer, even if there is one!
Just as in Douglas Adam's most excellent stories, we are PART of the equation and cannot be separated from it.
Thus, it is a test of character -- what are YOU going to do, and why? Whether or not God knows already is irrelevant. Choose to do something good -- "do a good turn daily" -- or not. Don't try to "surprise" God -- maybe you will, maybe you won't, but who cares if you do and how will you know?
Even the Hebrew knew that a balance existed
Wisdom
Nemisis
The Fates
Justice
Liberty
Feminine attributes all.
Of course, the inventor of that God might not have thought about it, so give the inventor a moment to reply.
Or perhaps since it is a man made thing, perhaps you can just make your own, and then answer the question.
Remember the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son: Ishmael for Muslims and Isaac for Jews and Christians. The command Abraham was plagued with is which one is more important: the God who is the creator of all or a son who was an unexpected gift. When Abraham decided to follow God's command, that was all that was needed. The actual sacrifice was not God's intention. Abraham made the right choice against his own intense love for his son.
The free will we have has so far in the history of civilization been the cause of all of man's positive progress when individual and collective exercising of free will have been beneficial to humanity and the underlying cause of all calamities when decisions made have had a negative impact on our lives.
At the moment of birth each one of us has to paths in life: one is the path to with we are born and about which we have had no choice and one to which we belong that leads to self-actualization. Our continuous task is to seek the path to which we individually and collective belong. There lies our salvation as an species. We can also choose the path to destruction.
But it was Abraham's... In 2003, a woman named Deanna Laney was told by God to smash a large rock on her son's heads...
How was she supposed to know if this was actually God testing her (like he did Abraham) or if it was a psychotic delusion?
In any case, she went through with it, but God did not send an angel this time to stop the rocks from smashing in those poor children's skulls.
God was testing Abraham and he passed the test. This story of the Bible is actually a metaphor for the rest of humanity. Would we be willing to sacrifice something of a lesser value in order to uphold a higher one.
The military when it has been in its right mind has done this for centuries such as our legitimate involvements in WWI and WWII that cost tens of thousands of lives but saved humanity from being dominated by dictators. Is God, unless you don't believe in one, is of lesser important that those decision makers in the military who sent innocent soldiers to their deaths for a higher cause?
The Ten Commandments for starters which came AFTER Abraham. Abraham did not have a specific commandment to NOT kill, which Deanna Laney did have. Deanna probably ought to have wondered why God was going against his own commandment.
The past thousand years have seen a shift to empirical conceptualizations of reality and away from an emphasis on deductive methods. The European religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries helped neutralize religion, allowing the scientific method to mature. The benefits and limits of all beliefs, including belief in technology and science, are now judged on results, not theological debate.
In the spirit of that shift, my view is that the question is meaningless.
What was the question?
"Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their inner selves"
The above is a verse from the sacred Quran Chapter 13 Verse 11
The verse shows that the Almighty God does not change the condition of a people from good to bad, from bad to good and prosperity to the severity, and intensity to prosperity until they change it themselves. God says in the Quran that And your Lord is never unjust to His slaves
Almighty said: do not think that Allah is unaware of what the wicked but He gives them respite for a day when eyes will stare.
Almighty has also stated in another verse: so that Allah will never change the grace which He hath bestowed on people until they change it themselves.
This statement has both positive and negative meanings. God does not withdraw His blessings from men unless their inner selves become depraved.
Same way He does not bestow His blessings upon wilful sinners until they change their inner disposition and become worthy of God’s grace.
In its wider sense this is an illustration of the divine law of cause and effect which dominate the lives of both individuals and communities and makes the rise and fall of civilizations dependent on peoples moral qualities and the changes in their inner selves
Does the message convey some sense and understanding?
I realize you were brought up this way, surrounded by those who told you these stories. But you're a part of the wider world now, and you need to get over this stuff.
Almighty?
If no person were permitted to choose evil, then no person could be judged and held accountable for that evil.
Conversely, without choice, no person can choose to do good.
Thus, it is up to humans to choose to do good or evil, and then actually do that good or evil, and Allah (God) will not intervene except under the most extraordinary of circumstances -- but this should not be misunderstood to mean there will not be consequences of that good or evil.
Where did the "gift of free will" come from, assuming we have it?
But inevitably it breaks down, no matter how well you took care of your vehicle, like any vehicle, it will eventually die ! Then you will go and buy a new car, and start the same cycle again.
Your "body" is your vehicle at this time, in the this physical realm, in this universe. Your body houses your "spirit"(that which is Immortal). Your body is composed of all the elements, that make up all we see, taste and touch.
This "universe" is your is your vehicle at this time, in the this physical realm, in this universe, and is composed of all the elements, that make up all we see, taste and touch.
Like all things observed in nature, in the universe, there are cycles. Day and night, the coming and going of the four seasons, activity and rest, inhaling, exhaling, Yin and Yang and the like. Where every we look we see cycles, and there is nowhere, they cannot be found.
Your "spirit" goes through innumerable bodies and forms. Yet it is a vehicle, and will wear down. But Don't Worry. You Get New Vehicle !
But folly comes when you are born, we forget what was before, so we believe that this realm is real, and it seems real. We get lost in the "Illusion" and think it's real, seduced by the physical body/mind and universe. We exist for but brief occurrences, coming and going like ocean tides.
Breaking the law("Thou Shall Not Kill"). These activities prevent man from achieving "Global EnlightenmÂÂent"(ShamÂbÂhala-BudÂdhÂist/KalÂki of Sambhala-HÂÂindu). Or in other words, Heaven On Earth.
Negative Karma is a black cloud, in excess, it hides the light of enlightenmÂÂent. Zero karma, is positive karma. Save a life, not take one.