Is contingency real?

     We've spent a lot of time in class talking about contingency, the idea that certain life events have the ability to either happen or not happen. This term is the opposite of necessity, an event that happens definitively and beyond our control. I've noticed that in lecture, we generally assume that there are things that are necessity and things that are contingent, but is that actually true?

     For some, that may sound ridiculous. Some people think that life is full of choice, believing that what we eat, wear, and even choose to text our friends could just as likely have not happened as it could have happened. This thought process isn't the only one, though. What if every event, even the trivial ones, were meant to happen regardless of whether we believed that there was a choice in the matter?

      There are two possibilities to explain everything as necessity; one of those is fate. Fate, as defined in Dictionary.com, is something that unavoidably falls a person. It's the idea that the world is working in a series of planned events that have already predestined everyone's lives. When fate is thought of, it's generally considered in how its effects could be massive, like bumping into a stranger on the street could cause a conversation with your future spouse. Isn't it also possible, though, that fate could simply be the force driving everything, even the minute details? Someone picking up an apple on the ground could result in them bumping into the random girl on the street that becomes his future wife, but it could just be that picking up the apple was an unavoidable choice due to fate. If this was true, it would mean that nothing in our lives was a choice. Although it may appear that there was another possibility of something happening, there wasn't.

      There is another possibility that would create a necessity-exclusive universe: a supernatural being that knew every decision that we made before it happened. For purposes of articulating my point, I'll draw from my own frame of reference and use a christian example. In Matthew 10:30, Jesus says that God knows every strand of hair on your head. By saying this, Jesus implies that God knows you significantly more than you know yourself. This opens up the possibility that God has an understanding of you that is so deep that he already knows the decisions you'll make, implying that everything you do is a logical formula even though you don't know it's going on. Here's an example. Every morning, you grab a piece of fruit. You have three options: a banana, an apple, and an orange.
To you, the selection every morning is random. You might think that you chose the apple because you had three seconds before going to school and you just needed to chose something. This theory, though, suggests the possibility that you are completely predictable in what you choose. Your choice may have appeared to be a random, split-second decision, but in actuality, it was a calculated and logical choice that God knew you'd choose.



     Now, with all of this religious talk, I should say that I'm not trying to force my beliefs on anyone. I'm just trying to say that these opinions exist, and because they exist, there's a possibility that they're correct. There's a realistic possibility that a non-contingent world exists.

     Let's shift gears a little, now. This has all been hypothetical conjecture. Think about the implications that would result if one of these ideas was actually the truth. This would mean that every move you make is predestined. No person is in control of his or her life; he or she is merely following the linear motion of time. That sounds a little scary, right? It's an intimidating thought that a force or supreme being is driving your motions so that your life in fifteen years from now is already planned out down to the last second. I propose, though, that even if this is real, it's not as intimidating as it seems. Ignorance is bliss is a common saying for a reason: it reminds us that not knowing can sometimes be a good thing. If our lives really are planned out, we don't realize that it's occurring, and therefore, we don't know what's going to happen. It's still a surprise to us when we get a great grade on a test. Even though our lives may be planned out to the last detail, we can still live a life of spontaneity and pleasure knowing only that we don't know what's on the next page.