Destiny and fate are the same because they both refer to an event or course of events that will inevitably occur in the future. People use them interchangeably in conversation. I do think that people use the work destiny when referring to future positions. It seems more common to say someone is destined for greatness than fated but I think this is not because of an actual difference, but because of the way people get used to speaking. Destiny and fate suggest a deterministic worldview because the assumption in both is that all future events are predictable, but the concepts also seem to suggest that we can know what will occur before it happens. Because of the intricacies of cause and effect and the multitude of causes it would not be possible to predict a person’s life. This does not mean the life is not determined by causes, just that we cannot know all the causes that will lead up to the future of a person’s life. The unpredictability this creates means we cannot say someone is destined for greatness or that their fate is to be poor. People cannot understand what will happen before it does and this is what is usually meant when we say something is destined or fated. Fate and destiny can be used to comfort people. When someone works really hard at something and does not succeed they are often told that “it wasn’t meant to be” but fate and destiny can also be used to trap people. For example, as someone in a long line of poverty you are destined to be poor. It can make people feel like their life will fall along a predictable path and therefore never improve. This is not what people mean when they say that the world is deterministic.
Are fate and destiny spiritual terms?
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