No. Not everything happens for a reason.

The Daily Drip

One of my pet peeves is when I hear people say "Everything happens for a reason."

Let's set aside all of the typical rebuttals, like:

• Would you say that to someone whose child just died?

• How does that explain atrocities like genocide?

• Does that mean that evil people shouldn't be prosecuted?

Put all of those aside for a second.

Let's talk about brains.

The brain doesn't think first and then decide what to do. We have a stimulus (an event, moment, experience) and then, first, we have a feeling about it. This happens insanely fast. Like, around 20ms fast. Just for reference, the average blink is around 10ms.

We feel first, then we think. This means that our feelings have a tremendous influence on what we think.

So, getting back to our example here, it's not that "everything happens for a reason." Things happen and then we explain them.

We make meaning out of what happens.

Please understand this critical difference. It will impact your beliefs in fate, destiny, and even religion or philosophy.