A fascinating case study – the relationship between James Costello and the nurse that treated him after the Boston Marathon bombing.
The Boston Marathon bombing that took place on April 15, 2013. James Costello was cheering on a friend near the finish line at the Boston Marathon when the bombs exploded, severely burning his arms and legs. During the months of surgery and rehabilitation that followed, Mr. Costello developed a relationship with one of his nurses, Krista D’Agostino, and they soon became engaged.
I now realize why I was involved in the tragedy. It was to meet my best friend, and the love of my life,” says Costello.
He is not the only one firmly holding on to this belief, we all do. People regularly do so for terrible incidents, positive and negative ones.
This is typically religious, as many are of the belief that everything comes from God.
In a research recently published in the journal Cognition, people were asked to reflect on significant events from their own lives, such as the births of children, falling in love and the deaths of loved ones.
Majority who are religious said they thought that these events happened for a reason that had been designed by God. Atheists also said they believed in fate, which states that life events happen for a reason which is being propelled by an order to life.
As explained by NYtime, young children show a bias to believe that life events happen for a reason — to “send a sign” or “to teach a lesson.”
This belief exists regardless of how much exposure the children have had to religion at home, and even if they’ve had none at all.
The world itself is full of purpose.
Read: The Clash between Religion and Science, Neuroscientists explain
In large-scale survey studies also reported in the journal Cognition, we found that highly paranoid people (who tend to be obsessed with other people’s hidden motives and intentions) and highly empathetic people (who think deeply about other people’s goals and emotions) are particularly likely to believe in fate and to believe that there are hidden messages and signs embedded in their own life events. In other words, the more likely people are to think about other people’s purposes and intentions, the more likely they are to also infer purpose and intention in human life itself.
Some people are of the contrary view, saying there really are no accidents, that what happens to us — including the most terrible of events — reflects an unfolding plan. Do you know this belief also has some ugly consequences? This can lead us to blame those who suffer from disease and who are victims of crimes.
According to popular atheist, Richard Dawkins:
precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”
Read also: Believing in God is a Product Of Hardships
Are you of the notion that, Divine Justice exists and that all things happen as scripted by God OR that things don’t just work out for people’s benefit?