fatalism

• primitive religion prevented f.

86:7.3But these an­cient ideas of re­li­gion pre­vented men from be­com­ing fa­tal­is­tic and hope­lessly pes­simistic; they be­lieved they could at least do some­thing to in­flu­ence fate. The re­li­gion of ghost fear im­pressed upon men that they must reg­u­late their con­duct, that there was a super­ma­te­rial world which was in con­trol of hu­man des­tiny.

• belief man cannot improve his status

121:4.21. The Epi­curean. This school of thought was ded­i­cated to the pur­suit of hap­pi­ness. The bet­ter Epi­cure­ans were not given to sen­sual ex­cesses. At least this doc­trine helped to de­liver the Ro­mans from a more deadly form of fa­tal­ism; it taught that men could do some­thing to im­prove their ter­res­trial sta­tus. It did ef­fec­tu­ally com­bat ig­no­rant su­per­sti­tion.

• trust in God’s overcare is not

140:8.21. Do­ing the Fa­ther’s will. Je­sus’ teach­ing to trust in the over­care of the heav­enly Fa­ther was not a blind and pas­sive fa­tal­ism. He quoted with ap­proval, on this af­ter­noon, an old He­brew say­ing: “He who will not work shall not eat.” He pointed to his own ex­pe­ri­ence as suf­fi­cient com­men­tary on his teach­ings. His pre­cepts about trust­ing the Fa­ther must not be ad­judged by the so­cial or eco­nomic con­di­tions of mod­ern times or any other age. His in­struc­tion em­braces the ideal prin­ci­ples of liv­ing near God in all ages and on all worlds.

• facing the inevitable with stoic resolution

181:1.7Je­sus gives peace to his fel­low do­ers of the will of God but not on the or­der of the joys and sat­is­fac­tions of this ma­te­rial world. Un­be­liev­ing ma­te­ri­al­ists and fa­tal­ists can hope to en­joy only two kinds of peace and soul com­fort: Ei­ther they must be sto­ics, with stead­fast res­o­lu­tion de­ter­mined to face the in­ev­i­ta­ble and to en­dure the worst; or they must be op­ti­mists, ever in­dulging that hope which springs eter­nal in the hu­man breast, vainly long­ing for a peace which never re­ally comes.