Against the doctrine of fate

In the treatise “Against the Doctrine of Fate” by St. Gregory of Nyssa expounds the doctrine of free will, refuting the pagan opinion that human destiny depends on the position of the stars at the moment of a person’s birth, and proving the absurdity of fatalism and astrology. This is the best polemical treatise on this topic. The essay describes the debate that took place between St. Gregory and one pagan philosopher in 382 in Constantinople. The treatise is preceded by an introduction and consists of two main parts. The first is an apology for astrological fatalism. The second is a refutation of this doctrine. The first part contains two main theses of the pagan philosopher: fate controls every aspect of a person’s life, including his will; The basis of fate is the movement of celestial bodies that determine human life. In the second part of St. Gregory offers an extensive refutation of the philosopher’s theses, making extensive use of ancient philosophical arguments and presenting them from Christian positions: the argument of common fate; argument of different destinies; "customs of the barbarians." The saint explains the demonic nature of astrological predictions and points to the sequence of the Sixth Day: the stars created on the fourth day cannot influence the earth that preceded them in the course of creation. The content of this small treatise is almost entirely philosophical. Obviously, all this is explained by the desire of St. Gregory to defeat the pagans with their own weapons. The saint clearly shows that the supreme ruler of the world and all free living beings is not an impersonal and soulless fate, but a living Personal God. In turn, the basis for salvation on our part is not trust in fate, but in free human will. *The title of the work in Greek is Κατὰ εἱμαρμένης. *The title of the essay in Latin is Contra fatum. Do you remember, without a doubt, what happened to me when recently a very great mountain of unbelief among you, speaking in the Gospel, moved into faith (Matthew 17:20), because the wise Eusebius in his old age came up with an idea worthy of his gray hairs, if only others need to adhere to the idea that this is a human idea, and not some kind of Divine assistance from Him who guides humanity for good. Then I was truly amazed at the extraordinary nature of the miracle, how the greatness of faith that had previously been in such unbelief surpassed the measure of unbelief many times over. And as, in the course of our conversation, a conversation somehow came up concerning questions about fate, I received your order, O honorable and sacred chapter for me, to retell in writing in an Epistle to you the conversation that took place on this subject in the great city of Constantine with one of the philosophers. So, having found some leisure for a while, in a few words, shortening the speech as much as possible, I will tell you in a simple and raw story, most of all being careful that the speech, extended to the vastness of the argument, does not go far beyond the measure of the Epistle. I offered a few words about our piety to one man trained in external wisdom, as one might guess from what he said, and intended to convince him so that he would move from Hellenism to agreement with our teaching. But he gave a lot of evidence that choosing something of his own free will is not in the power of those who want it - on the contrary, he connected human life with some kind of necessity, without which nothing can happen from what has happened to us, and reflected my teaching in the following words: if it is determined for him to become a Christian, then he will certainly do so, even if we did not want it; if this is forbidden by the necessity of fate, then it will not be possible to invent any way to overcome fate. Since he said this, I thought, it was natural that he avoids the opportunity to learn anything about faith, being deeply immersed in Hellenism, and in this way wanting to reflect the continuation of our word. But he did not cease to adhere to the same, asserting that everything is subordinated to the necessity of fate, that it is at the head of existence, all beings submit to its rotation, and the length of life, and the difference in morals, and the choice of the type of life, and the structure of the body, and the inequality of merits, so that it is necessary to be in charge, whoever by fate reaches the authorities, for the same reason, another remains in slavery, and also gets richer and poorer. And again, healthy and weak constitution of the body, short life and longevity have the same reason. For whoever enjoys life for a small number of days and whoever spends it for a long time not through his own effort, but out of necessity, both receive both. It is only by fate that both voluntary and involuntary death and various types of violent death, caused in accidents, or by strangulation, or by a judicial verdict, or by malicious intent, are given as a destiny. And these even more general and comprehensive sufferings: earthquakes, shipwrecks, floods, disasters from fire and all similar types of evils, he represented as depending on this cause. He added that even in everyday activities the mind of the chooser has no power at all. But everyone, he argued, serves the dominion of fate, when someone philosophizes, or speaks, or cultivates the land, or sails, or chooses a married or celibate life. And he also affirmed the necessity of virtue and vice, so that by inevitable fate one became attached to a more exalted life, spent in non-acquisitiveness and freedom, while the other digs up coffins, or commits robbery at sea, or is indecent, or pampers himself with a dissolute life. By listing all this, he thought that he had presented a strong reason not to accept our teaching, showing that the power to choose what we wish does not depend on us, but we must expect this from necessity, which, if it gives rise to such a desire, will be a matter of necessity and reluctantly follow the teaching. Without this same necessity, it is impossible to do this even with a strong desire. When he said this and similar things, I asked him: is it not some kind of God that he considers to be the one who has power over everything and is called by the name of fate, and by whose will, according to his belief, everyone’s affairs are arranged? He, having condemned me for the great foolishness shown in this matter, said: “You don’t understand, it seems to me, anything heavenly. Otherwise, you would know the power of fate and how this power is inevitably enveloped in a chain of events.” When I expressed surprise at this speech and wanted to know something more clear, namely, does he represent fate as some kind of free, self-righteous, not servile force, exerting some kind of superior power in itself, or does he understand something else under the name of fate? Again returning to the previous word, he says: “Whoever observed the movement of the celestial bodies, the zodiacal circle, its twelve divisions, equally spaced from each other according to the outlines of the visible constellations, comprehended the power of each of the stars, i.e. what power each has by itself by nature, and what a collection of stars produces when they are in a certain mutual connection, when the property of each of them is mixed as much as possible by approaching the other and separated by moving away from the other; what again produces the passage below of the lower star and what - an eclipse during the transition and again the restoration of the upper one, a varied arrangement of converging and diverging stars, described by triangular or indirect outlines or constituting any other outline known in geometry - whoever understands this and the like will recognize what is meant by the word "fate." Because the name of fate explains what must happen with a certain combination of stars in some inevitable chain. Since this again seemed strange to me, because I did not understand anything he was asserting as I had not studied this science, I asked him to explain to me what was said by something from which I could learn the meaning of the word “fate.” For the fact that the star circles are enclosed one in the other and rotate inside with a movement opposite to direct circulation, yet they describe the circle of the zodiac - this, I said, I heard from others, as a result of which I have no doubt that the rays of the luminaries according to the special rotation of each pole approach and diverge, the lower passes below, the upper is hidden from our eyes if it happens behind the one passing below. And that, as a result of this, it is natural to conclude that if any outline is formed from the stars, when the circle rotates the star located on it with its own movement so that during the transition it is either on the same straight line with the star above it, or on its side, if in a short and if in a longer time each of the stars completes a complete revolution, since according to the magnitude of the ratio to each of the circles, they necessarily move either faster or slower during the reverse rotation. I asked to remain silent about all this and the like; it is clear to reveal to me only the power of fate - is it God who is meant by the name of fate, on Whom the power of the Universe depends and Who governs everything sovereignly out of an excess of power, as He pleases, or is it supposed that the power of fate is in the service of another certain higher reality, so that it itself is in some way under the power of another fate, compared with the highest cause of everything? For if we believe that fate has power over everything, then the sequence of speech will lead to the thought that nothing serves as its beginning. If we affirm that fate, following the movement of the stars, dominates everything with a certain violent necessity, then it would be safer to assign this omnipotent power to the preceding rather than to the subsequent and call the stars the cause of this - namely, either their direct rotation, or within this rotation the circles seen, or a circle described on the axis indirectly. For if anyone supposedly agrees that the stars do not move and the eternal rotation does not produce mutual movement between them, one from the other, but they always consist in the same arrangement, then fate will not take place. So, if the movement of the stars gives rise to fate, then in vain it is recognized as dominant over everything else, since it itself is in slavery to a higher cause and does not exist when there is no movement. But this philosopher says: “This is not what our teaching believes. According to him, fate does not itself appear as a certain personality. On the contrary, since in beings there is one kind of sympathy and everything in itself is coherent and the individual parts, considered as a whole, as if in one body, are embraced by a single agreement, because all parts are closely connected to one another, to that extent (since the upper destiny is much more important) everything earthly is applied to what goes ahead and is consistent with this, because in accordance with the movement of what is above, everything here necessarily moves - mainly, as it was said, by the power of every star you see. Just as in a medicinal composition the qualities of substances, artificially mixed according to some law, in general dissolution produce something different, and not what each substance was before their mutual mixing, so (since stellar forces also turn out to have different properties) the diverse combination of different properties that comes from the proximity and distance of stars produces diverse differences in what happens in life, as if in a certain stream, continuously pouring down on us. That is why predictions of the future, made more carefully by those who are wise about this, are infallible. For, as one who is knowledgeable in the art of medicine, if an intoxicating or numbing medicine is mixed with a salty or astringent, predicts the property that is formed from the displacement of various substances, as well as what it produces, and how long it will have power, and for whom it is destructive, for whom it is salutary - so, whoever carefully listens to the heavenly things, has comprehended the nature of each being, he will know the power of the combination of their qualities, what it produces. This very flow is not similar to itself even for a short time. On the contrary, since the movement of the stars entering into a mutual combination never stops, then it also necessarily changes, constantly changing in accordance with the movement, always being in connection with the diversity of movement and changing its actions according to the movement of the stars. And each of those entering life, having attracted from this stream the share that goes to him, in accordance with this moment of time becomes what the property of this part predicted and produced. For, of all necessity, just as the impression of a seal made on wax imprints the appearance of the image, so human life is carried away by what part of the force flowing out of the movements of the stars, but it is the property of that part that must be imprinted and become what the share of the outflow had in itself, which the beginning of life instantly attracted and which, once imprinted in accordance with the power noted there, is necessarily conformed to the property of the way of life, doing or undergoing what the beginning and causes marked for him his first meeting with this stellar stream.” When he said this, I remarked to him: “Won’t you stop spreading before me in idle talk and nonsense, proving that that indivisible share of instant communion flows to us from above, according to your words, serving as the cause of everything that is in us; but you won’t say whether it is animate and has free will, and how the inanimate dominates over the animate, having no independence, unable to show that there is any own, natural desire in it? On the contrary, above all will, above the foresight of reason, above learning, thoroughness and virtuous intentions in your word, you have placed, as if some kind of arbitrary ruler and master, something inanimate, not free in will, unstable, transitory, indivisible, insolvent, and depending on the strength of this you set the composition and government of beings and do not see what absurdities Is your teaching sound? For if the share of this flow has such a force that through it what came into being at its first origin is accomplished, then this is, of course, because the state of beings is inconsistently, but preliminary, directed by it. Therefore, this portion, to the extent of its own strength, will lead the one being born and will not serve the one born under the circumstances encountered by him. For it is not visible here which is more primary, because both converge in an instant equally with each other. And before leaving the falsehood, man is in some kind of movement, driven by decline and growth in nature, because this too constitutes a kind of movement; and the star, before a person attracts air into himself, is already in motion and does not stand. And the meeting of those equally meeting each other as a result of movement makes it difficult for the judge to decide what precedes what, for the stars move, rotating, and what is born takes its natural path. If both converge mutually in one part of time, then what difference do they have among themselves so that one can be recognized as the cause of the other? For if man is due to the stars, then nature would have to ceaselessly give birth, without even for a moment showing any interruption in the appearance of the human race in the world. If there are many intervals between the appearance of those born, then it is clearly shown that human birth will not follow the movement of the stars. For the stars always move, but people are not always born - on the contrary, the stars move in their own order, and people again have their own special order, and what is far from each other by nature is not connected by any necessity with each other. If your teaching affirms this, namely that in this fraction of time lies the cause of everything that happens in life, then look how many darkness of rulers and arbitrary rulers are produced every day, and likewise every night in these short and instantaneous sections of time, because night and day, as you say, are divided into twenty-four hours, and each hour is divided into sixty minutes, and again each of these minutes is further divided into the same number of seconds; and as you say, those who resort in words to the most refined observation of such things, and again each of these named particles is subjected to a new equal division. So, the multitude of these instantaneous gods, or rulers, or arbitrary rulers, or I don’t know what to call them, made up of them, exceeds twenty-one darkness 1 . If one hour produces so many thousands of particles for us, then twenty-four hours in relation to one, taken many times, will, of course, give rise to countless thousands of particles. And your teaching asserts that each of these particles has an inevitable force. It follows from this that not one of them is inactive, because inaction cannot be called a distinctive property of force, without a doubt, strength is seen in activity. Therefore, the force and its products are equal, so that, as many particles are in each hour, so many human births are necessarily formed at that hour. And if equal power is to be attributed to each particle, then the equivalence of power will equally make everyone kings, long-lasting, strong, prosperous, happy, having everything that is considered the most precious lot. For a deficiency in any of these is made a charge of imperfection in power. And no one will attribute equal power to the one who produces both the great and the small. For example, one lived through a hundred years in blooming health and a prosperous old age, surrounded by children, accompanied by grandchildren and delighted by a whole family of them, not knowing illness or suffering, respectable, carefree, abundantly endowed with wealth and everything, if anything else is considered dear in this life, and finally, pleased by everyone. The other is strangled at the same time as being born: many of those born, being the fruit of fornication or adultery, perish from mothers who, having given birth to them unlawfully and putting them to death with their own hands, thereby hide their evidence. Where can you see the power of rock in them? Why was the power of fate insufficient for the same measure of life? If your teaching considers it necessary to attribute power to it, then its power will turn out to be equal for all beings, and will not be sufficient for one and insufficient for another, if it is actually recognized as power, because power is known by works. Therefore, there will be no wrongness in life when everyone still shows the highest measure of well-being in themselves, because everything, according to your teaching, is subject to fate, and fate is always possible, you say. So, if this destiny can always do everything, then it can do everything over everyone. But the differences in people’s lives are numerous and varied, according to their merits and possessions, according to the length of time, according to the composition of the body, and according to everything from which a person is called either blessed or unfortunate. And that this rock or fate created by your word cannot do everything, this clearly shows the inequality of works. For if longevity is considered a matter of strength, then the shortness of life, of course, is a matter of weakness. Therefore, it must be accepted as undeniable that one fate is weak - and another is powerful, because short-termism is the opposite of long-term, and therefore each of them is produced, of course, by opposites. For no one will make both happiness and misfortune dependent on the same cause; but if we succeed in one thing due to the fact that there is strength, then the other, of course, will not happen without a lack of strength. For misfortune lies in nothing other than the lack of strength to become blessed. But most people are unhappy throughout their lives - therefore, the powerlessness of fate turns out to be greater than its power. Therefore, where is this irresistible, omnipotent, inevitable necessity, which would have the power to control everything in life, when, according to the connection of speech, it was revealed to be powerless in most cases? But you will say that just as she wants it for one, she doesn’t want it for the other, but for both she has the power to do whatever she wants. Therefore, of course, you can imagine the reason for the difference between these arbitrarinesses. Both the one and the other person - you do not see in both of them any difference in nature, neither one nor the other has good or bad in will, but one, having preceded by some little time, came out of the mother’s womb, because his nature accidentally ejected him, and the other either directly or soon followed him. And after this, not the same life is given to both, but one lucky one, or, if it happens, the king, is covered with gold and scarlet from the first day of his birth, and the other, the son of some poor man or slave, is not even wrapped in rags by those who gave birth to him. Therefore, why is he wrong, having anticipated or been late with a little time, not by his own intention, but by the movement of nature, in order to receive a dishonorable life as his lot? What excuse will you find for this mistress of yours? Where is the truth, where is the piety? Where is the holiness? Or will you say that fate does not care about any of this, does not pay attention to virtue, has no concern for any good? Therefore, if this is not in her care, then, of course, she will be concerned with the opposite, because alienation from good is clearly shown by mastering evil. But would you say, perhaps, that she has no concern for either one or the other? Therefore, you assert that it is something inanimate, not free, not sensitive to either good or bad. And if fate has neither a soul, nor will, and does not see its own independence in it, then why do you testify that it has such power that it controls free living beings and controls the wealthy, the insolvent, those involved in life - not involved in it, the animate - the inanimate, those living freely - not having freedom, those practicing virtue - incapable of virtue, in a word, existing - non-existent? Therefore, what is the significance of this notorious name? This is not an animal, is not seen in the outline, is not revered by God, for how can one be God who does not pay attention to virtue and justice? And if there is not something from what is counted, then what is it? But, probably, you always call the present in time fate, because time is coextensive with any movement - whether of rivers, or stars, or people. There is no difference if, sitting by the water, particles indivisible due to the eternally present time mean the movement of a stream, or a ship carried by the wind, or people making a journey or moving stars, because for everything that moves transiently there is one law of motion - the transition from the place it occupies to the place where it does not exist. If neither the flow of streams, nor the movement of ships, nor the procession of people, signifying the continuation of time, become fate, then why do you imagine that the temporary signs of the movement of stars produce fate from themselves, and claim that such and such an hour or the smallest particle of an hour, which is designated by such and such a sign of stellar movement, becomes fate? Why don’t people’s births necessarily coincide with every sign? For I will repeat the same word again. What is the reason why a person is good or bad is, of course, the same reason that he exists. Therefore, if from the stars is what happens at birth, then from them, of course, is birth. If the birth is not from them, then what is born is not from them. And that the cause of birth is not in the stars, this is clear from the following, namely from the fact that the human births of those born into the world do not cease to flow together, like a river with the continuously moving flow of passing time - on the contrary, births occur with intervals, and in the origin of those shares that the current time produces through the ever-moving motion of the sidereal aspiration, no interval can be grasped either by feeling or thought. So what is this destiny? Whether it is one generic one, or whether there are many of them and they are fragmented into particles of time, the mind cannot comprehend this in any connection. Would you say that the stars move? And we point to the movement of rivers. But they are always moving, and the rivers are also incessant. But the stars are in time, and the rivers are not outside of time. But for stars it is impossible to find a temporary beginning of motion; What kind of beginning in time can you imagine for rivers? But the stars always move along the same paths and in the same way, and no one will attribute the opposite movement to rivers, because water always naturally flows from a higher place down a slope. Therefore, either grant us that the movement of rivers also gives rise to certain destinies, or we will not yield this power to the movement of the stars. But they say that Aries or Taurus have such and such strength, and each of the planets has such and such strength. Therefore, when a person is born under the influence of something named and some planet, which either alone or with others rotates periodically, then this combination of power to the one born at that hour makes life corresponding to birth. What idle talk! By some accident you call the calf slave, because this animal is tamed by the yoke; and the ram is beneficial because it brings a wave; about those born under the influence of any of them, you assert that such and such a constellation, rotating in the opposite direction, according to the force naturally residing in it, due to the mixture of special properties, prepares such and such a share of those born. So what? Tell me, did the calf voluntarily become sub-jugular? Are you really going to say that it is desirable for an Aries to have his hair cut? Is there a harmful and numbing force in the star that describes the top of the sky, or an intoxicating force in the fiery star or in any other visible star, what kind of force is there in it, whether by the star’s free will or against the will? If they voluntarily remain in evil and at will become harmful, then whoever claims this directly proclaims their misfortune, because when they had a better fate in their power, they find pleasure in the dishonorable. If, not by its own will, but by some necessity, each star became what you honor it for, then it means that above them some other higher fate hid the qualities of their natures and powers, so that you need to look for other stars, more powerful than the first and of a special movement in itself, a certain combination of which, by some necessity of fate, made it so that either Taurus is enslaved, or Aries is harmful, or cancer is headless, or, if anything These lovers of idle talk - the sages - divulge something different about each of the stars. And if these phenomena with us are such due to the necessity of some fate, then, of course, reason will come up with another reason for that highest necessity that makes such a state necessary, and for this other - another, and for another - again another; and thus, our mind, extending into infinity, will not stop anywhere, inventing fate for fate, share for share, necessity for necessity. When I expressed this and with such reasoning showed the absurdity in the teaching, the philosopher talking to me, interrupting the rapid flow of speech, said: “Why are you arguing with such effort? Why don’t you follow those who, through calculations, have found the truth in everything and, if they accurately take the hour of birth of what happened into the world, predict the entire life of the person born: time, type of life, characteristics of morals, dangerous cases, marriage, fertility, success in obtaining ranks or, conversely, childlessness, illness, unemployment, shortness of life and the misfortunes of poverty? Therefore, since all this is precisely intended and the truth is witnessed by fulfillment, what other reason do you have not to believe in the necessity of fate? But I, having said that I will explore the reasons for such predictions a little later, asked: do they believe that the reason why such things come true is unreasonable and random, or do they find some basis in this observation, so that what happens happens naturally? “And very much,” he answered, “everything that happens has its own reason.” For when, from a certain coincidence of stellar qualities, such and such a composition of the body is formed in the person being born, then the one who has accurately comprehended the doctrine of the heavenly bodies foreknows that such and such a composition is formed in the one born and life can extend to such and such a measure, namely, greater with a healthy constitution and again less with a sick constitution of the body. “And I, laughing at these words, said to him: you hid from us that, in your opinion, destinies originate from Galen, Hippocrates and the like, because they, putting aside the movement of the stars, predict the future by a correct view of the subject.” When the eyes are sunken, the churches are sunken, the skin on the forehead is hardened, death is predicted. And for many, I said, when their bodies were in the most painful state and they were almost expecting death, the threads of such fate were again woven through medical art. So, for example, Plato’s word conveyed to us about the teacher Prodicus that, although he could not bring his body to perfect health through bodily exercises, because the disease was fatal, nevertheless, always skillfully delaying the imminent death, he prepared for himself, if not the safety of life, then protection from death, which is why he lived to old age, having managed, due to the slowness of death, not to die. So, according to this story, fate is not accepted by you as something unshakable, just as soon as some art is found to eliminate necessity. But such reasoning, says the philosopher, does not in the least refute the evidence borrowed in favor of fate from predictions, for it is also possible to predict this by someone who has accurately observed the movement of the heavenly bodies, so that one is certain, and another is doubtfully predicted to die. - But I noticed: the law of necessity is not confirmed in this way, for there is another law of the accidental, when it is possible for one or the other to happen, another law of the immutable, which should not be applied to the accidental and which is certainly one or the other; and wavering hopes about one or another outcome of the matter is far from the laws of necessity. Beyond this, I say to the philosopher, on what basis do you think that the prediction of future events has certainty? “Many times,” he says, “have you heard me say this and now you are asking the same thing?” It is precisely said that the stars have some special powers for each; and the ever-moving current of their known combination produces countless differences in forces. Therefore, whoever entered life by birth, having imprinted on himself the share of time that falls to him, which received a certain image from the influence of the stars, that the power of that hour will turn out to be contained within itself, will necessarily have the same in relation to life; It can’t be otherwise. “So what are, I said, disasters in war, earthquakes, falls of cities, wrecks of ships loaded with tens of thousands of people, floods, fires, yawning abysses and similar natural disasters? How will the doctrine of predictions be saved? How much suffering has life presented both in the past and in our time? Such, for example, are the flood under Noah and the burning of Sodom, or the Egyptian army mired in the Red Sea, or then the defeat of foreigners, these countless beatings of people, or the non-violent death of the people of Israel, who died in a short time in many thousands, or one hundred eighty-five thousand Assyrians killed in an instant of time, legends about the subsequent troubles, about misfortunes, that befell the Medes and Hellenes, about the great battles on the sea and on land and everything like that, the remembrance of which becomes instructive for subsequent generations. Even if we passed over all this in silence, what our lives tell would suffice as evidence of what is being asserted. Who did not know this great main city in Bithynia, one of the dominant ones? Who doesn’t know the wide and spacious Thrace? Who doesn’t know how, in a short period of time, one was completely crushed by war, and the other was devastated by an earthquake and fire? How many children there were, how many babies, middle-aged, elderly, free and slaves, rulers and ruled, rich, poor, healthy, sick - and all died in an instant! The fire consumed all of them as food, and for all of them their houses became coffins. Where is the connection of these stars that determine the differences in people’s lives? Or for all these people, one confluence of stars decided the pangs of birth, and fate threw out their share for everyone at the hour of birth? The vast differences in age and rank indicate that not all of them were born into the world together. If the time of birth is different for everyone, and the identity of the disasters did not allow any change, despite the reason being in the birth, then does this not expose the instability and inconsistency of the prediction? On the contrary, says the philosopher, a ship, a city, and every people have a destiny, but the subsequent fate is spun to the first position of the stars, and the contents necessarily agree with the contents. Therefore, who is this Ilithyia 2 in shipbuilding? What is the birth of the city? From what beginning do we see the birth of a people? A woodcutter cuts down an oak tree, a timber merchant puts it on sale, a shipbuilder buys wood for money, divides the work into parts; one saws trees into planks with a saw, another builds the underwater part of a ship; others make efforts to prepare cross-links; some are busy finishing the ship’s bow, and some are busy finishing the ship’s stern; some are taking care of the mast, and some are taking care of the stern; Some sew ropes from flax, the helmsman's concern is the rule at the helm; others are trimming the deck and preparing the sails; others decorate the painting; others tie ties with resin and build a hold in the middle. Of course, not everyone does their job together, but one does it now, others do it a little later; one has already completed his work, and the other you see still at work. Therefore, when will the wise men set fate to the ship? Is it then how the tree is bought, or when it is cut down, or when it is used for work, or when they work on it with iron tools, or when they hammer it together with nails? With so many different works that are needed for shipbuilding and are not carried out at the same time as each other, what time should fate assign so that the ship, having reached the point of sinking, destroys those sailing on it along with it? What can you say about cities? When do they think fate takes over the city? Is it then that those who care about the city have some kind of meeting about its foundation? When do people talk about the convenience of a place? Or when they draw a plan? Or when they use iron tools? Or stacking stones? Or do they demolish what is needed for construction? Which of these serves as the beginning of a city? What can you also say about a people who are crushed by the disasters of war? What, according to their teaching, is the share, and where did it come from, that they put some to death, and enslaved others in captivity? Why did Hannibal, or Caesar, or Alexander the Great, against whomever they took up arms, prepare the same fate for everyone, so much exceeding the necessity that everyone suffered the same amount of troubles? And how unfounded is the reason for thinking that the fate of cities during the fall of earthquakes is caused by the position of the stars, another can see from the following. Who does not know that the earth suffers such disasters in places not only inhabited, but also uninhabited? Anyone who, from his own experience or from a story he has heard, has information about Mount Sangag, which lies on the borders of Bithynia, will find the truth of these words, that near the very heights of the road, the entire top of the mountain has collapsed and presents a terrible sight to travelers. A similar thing happened in the Paphlagonian regions. And in other places, human settlements were swallowed up by such yawning abysses, but often a country that has no inhabitants finds itself suffering from the same disaster. And what especially needs to be said about the Cyprians, Pisidians, Achaeans, who have many signs of what has been said? But for this reason we mentioned that the earth tolerates all this. Therefore, if it happens that there is a settlement of people in that place, then by all means they also experience the disaster to which the place has been subjected. If it is free from inhabitants, then the local disaster will not cause any harm to people. Therefore, what is the necessity of fate when both inhabited and uninhabited places equally suffer such a disaster? If it were possible to prove that the earth was created in parts, and not all at once, then perhaps their idle talk would have meaning, that with such and such a part of the created earth, in accordance with such and such a conjunction of stars, one or the other necessarily occurs. But since, according to the word of Moses, everything: heaven, earth, sea - one with the other is taken together and the earth precedes the stars in creation and movement, then why will they believe that the cause of particular events with the earth is in the movement of the stars? Therefore, if the earth and the stars are simultaneous and no reason is derived from them for the destruction or continuation of its existence, but in some particular places such events occur, then it is no longer the necessity of fate, but some other feature that is the cause in such cases. Therefore, when the earth suffers something like this and any similar disasters occur, so that the inhabitants are carried away into ruins, then what will the worshipers of fate say, believing that the movement of the stars dominates creatures? Why does a child, an infant, a youth, a husband, a father, an elder, a noble nobleman, a mercenary, a prisoner die here? Neither the time of birth, nor any difference in dignity prevents them from suffering the same calamity. Moreover, who does not know that the worst of all crimes is incest with a daughter, marriage with a sister and unlawful relations with a mother? Therefore, if this was done due to some necessity of fate, then, of course, in our places there would be those who dared to do this. Since only the Persian people and those who adopted their laws dare to do such a vile deed, it is clear to everyone that it is fate and fate that everyone chooses arbitrarily what they want. Moreover, so that they could not say something similar to the following: in certain areas certain special movements of the stars are noticed, and therefore some marry their mothers, others kill strangers and eat people, since the special arrangement of the stars has such an influence on them, although such reasoning is characteristic of the ignorant, who do not pay a careful look at all to what exists, who think that according to the known contours of the earth, the lot assigned to them from above is marked (and in this case, the earthly would be more powerful than the heavenly, if only it is recognized that the heavenly is the same as the earthly), - however, we add this too to expose the falseness of their proposal. The Jewish people are divided into almost all parts of the earth: eastern, southern, Mediterranean, western, northern - almost all nations have Jewish settlements. So, why did no stellar necessity have the power in any of them to grant a comfortable life to any of the people - on the contrary, in the innumerably diverse conjunctions of stars, no matter how what is born into the world, it is certainly in the same state, the whole race suffers harm during the entire definite turn of time? But the philosopher said: this has not yet been explored by us, for what reason among many peoples what is decreed by laws avoids the necessity imposed by the stars. And let the prediction of the future be recognized as considerable proof that what is determined by everyone’s fate is inevitable. For why would such and such, having foreseen that he would live such and such a number of years and encounter certain circumstances in life, not be deceived in this, if not some kind of necessity immutably determined this to happen to a person and made it obvious to the one who predicted it through a certain observation of numerical values? “To this I said: although it is better to appear ignorant of such things than to give cause for laughter to those who are little versed in our dogmas; However, caring little about those who ridicule our beliefs, I will briefly state the whole reason for this as best I can. There is a certain force that is hostile to the human race by nature and is recognized by its opposition to good nature. Thousands of evidence can be provided for this in obvious cases. But at the present time I do not consider it necessary to set out in order everything that certifies that this is really the case. Therefore, since every good concept and name is inseparable from the nature of God, from Him - life, light, truth, truth, wisdom, incorruptibility and everything that can be taken as good by concept, because the nature of God itself is good and bestows it - then the power, cognizable by opposites, is taken in opposition to each of all intelligible goods, so that in people themselves it produces death instead of life, instead of truth, deception and instead Each perfection has its opposite vice. For for her it is pleasant that which by nature can be harmful to people. But just as those who cause harm with poisons often sweeten the harmful composition with honey, not making an effort to make the harmful pleasant to the taste, but to drown out the feeling of the harmful, so this pernicious nature, with the goal of removing a person from the good Nature, is clothed in images of something good, covering up the hidden word of deception with some predictions and healing, so that, listening to this and honoring it, good, the pitiful human race had no desire to acquire what is truly good by nature. That is why, just as it happened that for the sake of some kind of deception, it happened that someone would appropriate to himself a kind of foresight, so, similarly, the power of demons, ready for deception, was noticed in the liver of victims, in the flight of birds, in fortune-telling, in evoking the dead and in calculating the time of birth, as if all this not only in the same way, but differently predicted the future. Therefore, just as someone who signifies the future with a liver, who by some fortune-telling concludes what will follow, or who pays attention to the flight of a bird of prey, does not make a promise that, by the necessity of fate, he will predict such things, so, similarly, since there is one reason that, according to what has been said, produces predictions of this kind, I mean the activity of a demonic force ready for deception, even by the fact that sometimes something from what was said was accidentally fulfilled (if only it was completely fulfilled), the power of fate is not proven. For otherwise it would be rightly proven that every kind of prediction has power from fate, and therefore, just as a dream is one of our fates, so the observation of heartbeats is another, another one made up of the flight of birds, or fortune-telling, or some symbols. But if nothing prevents all this from being a prophecy and not being fate, then if any prediction based on calculating the time of birth was fulfilled, this will not serve as sufficient evidence that it was not easy for something like that to be fulfilled. Moreover, the predictions of those who boast about something like this are not accurate and undoubted - on the contrary, they prepare for themselves many deviations in execution if the word is caught in a contradiction, and those who care about this, invent for themselves some subtleties, why failure in prediction is imputed to an error not in knowledge, but in the meaning of the hour; and their predictions are not at all straightforward, they fluctuate between two ways of fulfillment, and one might think that the very thing that was predicted came true. For those who observed the hour of birth often predicted celebrity and superiority over others; Then, since the one to whom the prediction was related fell into some extraordinary calamities, the one who predicted it claimed that he had not sinned in the least, because this person had suffered more than others in suffering evils. And our history is a witness to this. For when King Valens was the ruler of the Romans, then such a certain seduction prompted a rebellion against the authorities. And although the rebel rebelled, having a parting word for insolence with the prediction of those who calculated the time of his birth, the end of this enterprise turned out to be such that this man, known for very high positions of authority, became more remarkable in the greatness of the disasters; and many attribute this to the assistance of the horoscope, namely, that this husband inherited the greatness of the disaster instead of the greatness of the blessings. But I do not consider the fact that predictions about this are erroneous to be a great proof of the inconsistency of the doctrine of fate. And the power of demons, ready for deception and many other inventions, manages to make predictions. Some kind of broadcasting water produces immoderate movements and delights in those who taste it; in women's wombs, if a spirit blowing from below comes from some hole, it swells the womb, the mind goes into a frenzy and causes it to be taken out of its proper state. All this seemed divine and prophetic to the deluded, and none of those who predicted the future by cookies and any fiery signs or by the flight of birds attributed foretelling power to fate - on the contrary, such a thing is attributed to some kind of demonic charm. Thus, I affirm that either there is no prediction at all, because these prophecies are exposed by many contradictions of events, or, even if someone points out a prediction that seems to predict something in the future, the same thing that we understand about each of the other events that are fulfilled according to the foreshadowing, we should also believe about predictions of this kind. For in the reasoning of all this, as well as sinning in many ways, and foreshadowing in others, apparently, even that is not far from the truth of events; the nature of demons, who is ready to deceive the nature of demons, both with this and with any other invention equally successfully achieves the goal. For demons try most of all to turn a person away from turning his gaze to God, and from here preparing for himself a share of blessings. Therefore, to convince those who are easily deceived that what concerns everyday affairs does not consist in God’s will, but depends on such and such a conjunction of stars and on the power flowing from here, most of all relates to the goal of the harmful demonic nature. So, if it is pleasant for demons to turn a person away from God - the error in this really turns away - then it clearly turns out that there is some kind of demonic effort contained in this, deceiving those who think that all the power is in the stars, and do not look at the almighty sovereignty of God. That is two hundred ten thousand. Goddess, according to Greek mythology, present at the birth of children. You might be interested in: