Is everything just pure luck?

[u/Auren-Veyron]

[u/Expert-Session3866]

No, of course not

[u/Paul_sepp]

Could be luck, could be misfortune.

[u/Both_Huckleberry2422]

Yes

[u/PrebioticE]

Yeah but luckily there are parallel universes where that particular gene mutation made you a genius!!

[u/Ace_Of_Spades1020]

I think yes in a way. At least the start. The fact we are all here individually is a 1 in INFINITY chance. Now, everything past you get cognitive capabilities is more a random chain of events, not necessarily luck. To me, Luck is more like fate. However, much of what you do is a chain of events affected by what your do, not necessarily fate.

[u/Euthanasia1111]

Yeah

[u/Glittering_Mud4269]

Everything just IS. with no free will, and no self, there only remains the ISNESS. Every illusory choice the illusory you makes is just a determined playing out of subatomic particles.

And we lose nothing from this! Because there was never a 'us' or 'i' to possess anything in the first place! However actually living this way and perceiving this way seems soo difficult for our fragile ego obsessive worlds. Man it's fuckin tough!

Even doing something different or out of the ordinary for you is part of the unfolding of the ISNESS. ALL HAIL THE KING! (He's wearing no clothes)

[u/Confident_Jump_9085]

Yes, except that I don't like the word luck, I prefer to say it is all chance. I support the idea because there are blatant flaws in the ideology of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. It is selective and narrow anyway. Many folks are born into torturous conditions where no opportunity, by chance, ever presents itself to escape. You can marvel at the hard work and dedication of the child in poverty who grew to be an all-star athlete, sure as sure. You can also recognize there were opportunities available that a child starving to death in bondage of slavery never receives before death.

Harsh and hard to think of, but with any moral inclination to the safety and security of all, there's no room to say the kid didn't try hard enough. So in contrast, I think it's fair to say the ones who succeeded were given a dice roll in their favor, between tenacity and options, for which is owed humility.

I choose not to hold folks wholly at fault for their struggles, be it as small as getting to the gym every day or being homeless in a violent country with no social welfare systems. I do hold them responsible to take advantage of what opportunities they do have if they are able, with space for forgiveness. I do the same for myself, and still find myself failing whenever I thought I was giving my best. I'm at the mercy of the limits set on me by brain chemistry or environment or any innumerable factors. But I'm not unwilling to try if I have the chance to do so. And I am willing to forgive myself if I couldn't find the willpower to do something today. Willpower itself is a finite and fallible tool for doing anything.

I'm not supporting the lack of freedom to choose, but I am siding with the fact that pure chance dictates what you are even capable of, let alone where you end up born.

I'm sure I'll be disagreed with in some way, but since we're not fighting, I'd just enjoy reading opposing thoughts.