DEFINATION OF DESTINY

Destiny refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed NATURAL ORDER to the universe.

Different concepts of destiny and fate

Destiny may be envisaged as fore-ordained by the Divine (for example, the protestant concept of predestination) or by human will (for example, the American concept of manifest destiny).

A sense of destiny in its oldest human sense is in the soldier's fatalistic image of the "bullet that has your name on it" or the moment when your number "comes up," or a romance that was "meant to be." The human sense that there must be a hidden purpose in the random lottery governs the selection of Theseus to be among the youths to be sacrificed to the minotaur.

Destiny may be seen either as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable and unchangeable, or that individuals choose their own destiny by choosing different paths throughout their life.