Fluke: Does Everything Happen For a Reason?

As the title suggests, the basic idea of Fluke, by Brian Klaas, is that much of what happens in life -including our very existence- comes down to random chance. I don’t believe this, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless.

“Everything Doesn’t Happen For a Reason”

This is the title of a chapter, and typical of Klaas’s confidence in stating dogmatic opinions on subjects that can’t really be proven or disproven.

One odd thing about Klaas’s argument is that he equates individualism (which he really doesn’t like, as he repeatedly makes clear) with the “illusion” that life is not random. This, despite the fact, that individualism developed concurrently with the very type of scientific materialism Klaas espouses.

He rightly points out that non-Western cultures (and all cultures in the pre-modern era) don’t believe in anything like individualism. What he fails to mention in this context is that they don’t believe in a random, haphazard universe either.

“Western modernity, the dominant system of thoughts and beliefs in our world, has produced simplified myths to explain how change happens in our lives and in our societies. The conventional wisdom of separated individuals acting purposively and independently has become so pervasive that saying…