5. How can we
understand, according to
Spiritism, expressions
like: “The accident that
victimized the youngster
was a fatality”? Is
there fatality after
all?
Text
Absolute determinism is
not taught by Spiritism
1. There is no other
fatality than that which
results from the
determination of each
spirit, on incarnating
himself, to undergo such
and such trials. By
choosing those trials he
makes for himself a sort
of destiny which is the
natural consequence of
the situation in which
he has chosen to place
himself. I speak now of
physical trials only:
for, as regards moral
trials and temptations,
a spirit always
preserves his freedom of
choice between good and
evil, and is always able
to yield or to resist.
Even for those who seem
to be chased by
fatality, the causes of
their vicissitudes, if
not in the present, have
their origin in the
past, in previous
existences.
2. It’s important, first
of all, not make
confusion between
determinism and
fatality. Determinism is
a philosophical system
which denies the man the
freedom of speech, that
is, according to his
will. This system is
currently represented by
materialists and
positivists of all
schools; but it’s
curious to note that its
origin is found in the
religious scholastic,
which rigorously
subordinated to the
influence of the Divine
Providence the
determination of will. O
The materialistic
determinism, as a
religious one, denying
free-will, suppresses,
in consequence, the
responsibility of the
person.
3. The ideology of
determinism comes from
far away. In Greek
mythology, we find the
Parcae conception:
creatures that wove the
web of destiny, in which
was gathered the human
race, and couldn’t get
out of there. For the
first Greek thinkers,
the fate of people was
closely linked to the
belief of the absolute
power of the forces of
the Universe. The fate
of man would be,
according to this
thought, determined by
them; the person,
impotent before them,
should only obey them.
4 .For Pythagoras and
his followers, nature of
the Universe would be
formed in a way to
determine the fate of
people. The secrets of
their luck would be
hidden in numbers and
can only be unveiled if
its meaning is
understood.
Understanding the
meaning of numbers would
be, thus, fundamental to
the comprehension of
human fate.
5. Heraclitus taught
that the cosmic process
obeys determined laws.
Every change would be
according to a fixed and
immutable law, Law which
is the basic principle
of the world, and man
would be completely
subjected to it.
Heraclitus referred to
this Law or principle
calling it, sometimes,
destiny; other times,
justice.
Kant proposed free-will
as necessary for the
moral man
6. Who first looked to
get man away from the
idea of an inexorable
fate were the Greek
philosophers called
Sophist. According to
them, man could not be
attached to a process or
to laws he could not get
away from. It was for
them impossible that man
could not exercise
effect on their own
fate.
Socrates didn’t accept
such dominance either.
For him, knowledge would
be the supreme thing.
Reaching knowledge, the
man would do right;
without knowledge, man
would do wrong. Besides
this conception,
Socrates also understood
that the man could, by
knowledge, have a
certain influence on his
fate on Earth and future
life.
7. Plato defended
freedom.
The man – Plato proposed
– can overcome and do so
the challenges of the
world. Though a creature
of the Divine creator,
he can lead his life in
way that living it with
a spirit of justice and
sensibleness.
Aristotle also believed
in the freedom of man.
According to him, the
moral was not an
immutable thing, but
free choice: man can do
right and wrong things.
8. Other Greek
philosophers who came in
later either believed or
not in determinism.
Epicurus, for example,
didn’t consider the man
a puppet of inexorable
forces; free-will was
important. The Stoics
thought differently, as
they understood the
world as a result of
fixed and immutable
laws.
9. The religious Greek
thinkers conceived of a
relative freedom of man.
Philo believed that
incarnation of the soul
was a fall, a partial
loss of freedom he had
before incarnation.
Plotinus also believed
in the original freedom,
it means, the body is a
prison and the soul
linked to the body is
kept imprisoned, it is
not free. The early
Christian thinkers,
mainly the Apologists,
believed in a man
basically free and
understood that his fall
was due to the
connection to the body.
Pelagius said that God
conceived freedom to man
so that he could choose
between good and evil,
inside of free-will.
10. Closer to our times,
while Espinosa was
totally determinist,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
understood that the man
was free, not a
marionette of natural
laws, but a soul that
fights to live according
to the freedom he has.
Kant also proposed
free-will as necessary
for the moral man.
Man is not fatally led
into evil
11. So far we have seen
the main ideas of the
followers and
non-followers of
determinism, a
divergence that still
persists in our days.
Spiritism, however, says
that there is no
fatalism, a determinism
that leads the life of
man. Constraints at his
free-will are from debts
contracted in previous
existences that need to
be paid.
Without accepting
reincarnation is
difficult to understand
it.
12. From Spiritist
teachings, we can say
that man is subordinated
to a relative free-will,
which is expanded
through evolutional
process, and to a
relative determinism,
due to mistakes made in
the past and that must
be corrected and
repaired. Reincarnation
nullifies, then, the
idea that might be a
contradiction between
free-will and
determinism and offers
us the bridge that is
bound to connect each
other, in a way that
they don’t crash in the
conjectures of the
intellect.
13. The question of
free-will may be thus
summed up: Man is not
fatally led into evil;
the acts he accomplishes
are not written down
beforehand; the crimes
he commits are not the
result of any decree of
destiny. He may have
chosen, as trial and as
expiation, an existence
in which, through the
surroundings amidst
which he is placed, or
the circumstances that
supervene, he will be
tempted to do wrong; but
he always remains free
to do or not to do.
14. Fatality, as
commonly understood,
supposes an anterior and
irrevocable ordaining of
all the events of human
life, whatever their
degree of importance. On
the other hand, fatality
is not a mere empty
word; it really exists
in regard to the
position occupied by
each man upon the earth
and the part which he
plays in it, as a
consequence of the kind
of existence previously
made choice of by his
spirit, as trial,
expiation, or mission,
for, in virtue of that
choice, he is
necessarily subjected to
the vicissitudes of the
existence he has chosen,
and to all the
tendencies, good or bad,
inherent in it; but
fatality ceases at this
point, for it depends on
his will to yield, or
not to yield, to those
tendencies. The details
of events are
subordinated to the
circumstances to which
man himself gives rise
by his action, and in
regard to which he may
be influenced by the
good or bad thoughts
suggested to him by
spirits.
15. There is a fatality,
then, in the events
which occur
independently of our
action, because they are
the consequence of the
choice of our existence
made by our spirit in
the other life; but
there can be no fatality
in the results of those
events, because we are
often able to modify
their results by our own
prudence. There is no
fatality in regard to
the acts of our moral
life. It is clear,
however, that from the
choice that is made by
the Spirit is taking
into account the
commands of the Law of
cause and, occasion in
which determined
situations can be
included in the
so-called reincarnation
program, looking to
expiation and reparation
of faults previously
committed by the
reincarnating.
Answer
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