Against Fate and Chance

The great majority, however, in their folly, credit nature with the ordering of the universe, while some imagine that fate, or accident, is the cause. As for those who attribute the control of all things to fate, they do not realize that in using this term they speak a mere word, which names no active power and nothing that has a real and substantial existence. For what can this fate be, considered in itself, if nature is the first cause of all things? Or what are we to suppose nature itself is, if the law of fate cannot be broken? Indeed, the very claim that there is a law of fate implies that this law is the work of a lawgiver. If, then, fate itself is a law, it must be a law devised by God. So all things are subject to God, and nothing lies outside the sphere of his power. [a]

If someone says that fate is the will of God, and is thought of in that way, we grant it. But in what way do righteousness, or self-control, or the other virtues depend on fate? And if they do, where do their opposites, unrighteousness and lack of self-control, come from? For vice has its origin in nature, not in fate; and virtue is the right ordering of natural character and disposition. But grant that the varied outcomes of actions, whether right or wrong in themselves, depend on fortune or fate. In what sense can the general principle of what is just, the principle of giving everyone his due, be credited to fate? Or how can it be said that laws, encouragements to virtue and warnings against evil, praise, blame, and punishment, in short, whatever moves people toward virtue and deters them from practicing vice, have their origin in fortune or accident, and not rather in righteousness, which is a distinctive attribute of the God of providence?

For what happens to people follows from the course of their lives. That is why epidemics or uprisings, famine and plenty, follow one another in turn, declaring plainly and forcefully that all these things are ordered with reference to the way we live. For the Divine Being delights in goodness but turns away in disgust from all ungodliness. He looks with favor on the humble spirit, but he hates presumption and that pride which lifts itself above what befits a creature. And though the proofs of these truths are clear and plain to see, they appear in a still stronger light when we gather our thoughts and, as it were, concentrate them within ourselves, and ponder their causes with close attention. I say, then, that it is right for us to lead a life of modesty and gentleness, not letting our thoughts rise proudly above our natural condition, and always remembering that God is near us and watches all our actions.

But let us test still further the claim that the order of the universe depends on chance or accident. Are we to suppose that the stars and the other heavenly bodies, the earth and the sea, fire and wind, water and air, the succession of the seasons, the return of summer and winter, that all these exist without design and by accident, and not rather that they come from the creating hand of God? Some, indeed, are so senseless as to say that most of these things were devised by human beings because they needed them. Grant that this opinion has some appearance of reason where earthly and perishable things are concerned, though Nature herself supplies every good thing with a lavish hand. Yet can we believe that things which are immortal and unchangeable are human inventions? These, and everything else that lies beyond the reach of our senses and is grasped by the mind alone, receive their being not from the material life of human beings but from the eternal being of God, which belongs to the realm of the mind.

Again, the orderly arrangement of these things is the work of his providence. For example: the day, taking its radiance from the sun, is bright; night follows the sun’s setting, and with it the host of stars by which night itself is rescued from total darkness. And what are we to say of the moon, which is filled with light when it is farthest from the sun and opposite to it, but wanes the nearer it comes to the sun? Do not these things plainly show the intelligence and keen wisdom of God? Add to this the warmth of the sun’s rays, so necessary for ripening the fruits of the earth; the currents of wind, which do so much for the fruitfulness of the seasons; the cool and refreshing showers; and the harmony of all these things, by which all are carried on with reason and order. Last of all, add the everlasting order of the planets, which return to the very same place at their appointed times. Are not all these, together with the perfect service of the stars, obedient to a divine law, clear proofs of God’s ordering?

Again, do the mountain heights, the deep and hollow valleys, the level and wide plains, useful as they are and pleasing to the eye, seem to exist apart from the will of God? Or does not the proportion and alternation of land and water, the one serving for farming and the other for carrying the foreign goods we need, give a clear demonstration of his exact and well-measured providential care? For example, the mountains hold a store of water, which the level ground receives; and after the ground has drunk in enough to renew the soil, it sends the rest on to the sea, and the sea in turn passes it on to the ocean. And still we dare to say that all these things happen by chance and accident, though we cannot show what shape or form this chance has: a thing that has no foundation either in the mind or in the senses, and that rings in our ears as the mere sound of an empty name!