Oedipus Rex - Who Determines Our Fate?

Who Determines Our Fate?

In the play Oedipus Rex it was thought that what the Gods had in store for you was your fate. The gods had put a curse on King Lauis saying that his first born son was going to kill him and marry his mother. Knowing that the Gods minds couldn’t be changed when Oedipus was born the king had one of his men take him out and leave him on the side of a mountain. The man didn’t follow the king’s orders exactly and gave the boy to a Shepard, who in return gave him to a wealthy family from another city. Oedipus did grow up he moved back to Thebes where he did indeed kill his father and marry his mother. He also had four kids by his own mother, 2 girls and 2 boys. While Oedipus was trying to rid the city of Thebes from a plague, he was told of his fate. When Oedipus finally did discover that this was indeed the truth he gouged out his eyes, and his wife/mother killed herself. The question is does God really have a predetermined path for us or are we capable of making our own life decisions? There are a couple different view points to examine when asking this question.

Back in the days of Oedipus this was a very interesting notion that people held true. People in these days thought that it didn’t matter what you did in life that the Gods had a plan for you and that is what was going to happen. You could be the best person or the worst but your fate was already determined by the Gods. In this notion there was higher power mandating how people in society turned out. Many times it was curses that were being put upon their children that were most threatening. It was thought that this was most threatening because the Gods were letting you live your life, but when you had

a child the child was the one going to suffer. Or in Oedipus case he came back to murder his father.

There are many ways to look at this same issue today. There is the argument that God does determine the life path for each one of us. That when we are born God has a predetermined plan for us and that is how we are going to live. There is also the argument that we as individuals determine the right paths for ourselves. After all there are many choices in life and those choices that we make have consequences. We then have to live with the consequences of our actions. There is also the question of if God has a predetermined plan for us and there is no way of messing that up, why is it said that there is a devil. There are also the viewpoints from the individuals that believe in God and believe that he created us, and the individuals that believe we came from the apes. There are very good points to each of the arguments at hand. The first is that of God has a plan for us from the time we are born.

This is the notion that when we are born God has us on a plan that he has developed for us. There is no way to disrupt this plan because there is no one more powerful than god. So this would mean that God makes all kinds of people: he makes good, evil, mean, vicious, caring, loving, violent, etc. people. But when we learn about God we learn that he wants all people to be treated equal, and there to be no evil in the world. Because after all evil is the work of the devil. So if this is the case why are there evil people? Why are there people murdering others, and having affairs? If we look at just God making our life plan that leads to the bigger question of why did God create evil.

This also leads to the question is there really a devil? There could be the answer that when we are created God has a plan for us, but that the devil tempts us. So we can either

abide by Gods plan or we can follow the devil. If we abide by Gods plan we will live a happy, somber life and if we follow the devil we will live a miserable, sad life. Then what is to be said about the people who live in the middle? Did God create evil on purpose to even out good and evil?

Then there is the viewpoint that we determine our own destiny. There has always been the question are we created by God or did we come from Apes. Let’s first talk about the theory of if we were created by God. This theory then states that we are created from God and from the time we are put on earth we make our own decisions. These decisions that we make lead to different paths