The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) defines design as an idea , an intention or a purpose that is carried out based on one's own or another's will . A design, therefore, can be a command .
Let's look at some example sentences in which these aspects of this word can be seen: “By design of the deceased, a wake will not be held” , “The Minister of Economy arrived in Germany with the intention of attracting investments ” , “No "I understand what dark design led him to commit such an atrocity."
A personal wish or an imposition from a third party
An individual may have personal designs : that is, projects that arise from his thoughts and that he intends to realize in his life. Pursuing a university degree, settling in another country, buying a car or having a child are some of the goals that a subject can try to achieve.
In other cases, the design is imposed by a third party. The commercial manager of a company may be sent to China by the owner of the company to close an agreement with a firm from the Asian giant. The purpose, therefore, belongs to the owner of the company, but the design must be fulfilled by the employee. This means that the executive travels to fulfill his boss's design.
divine design
A divine design , on the other hand, is a motivation that human beings attribute to God to explain or justify certain events that, in general, are difficult to understand or accept. A believing woman who suffers the loss of her son to illness can console herself by maintaining that the death of her descendant was a divine design.
It is worth mentioning that the concept of divine design is not always linked to Judeo-Christian religions, although that is the most widespread idea in the West. This path, which allows us to provide an explanation for these often terrible situations or acts, is also followed by believers of other religions, especially polytheistic ones, and in all cases it leads them to accept that a divine entity has put them to the test. .
Beyond understanding
On the other hand, the divine plan is not a concept that should be framed in religions, since at its foundations there is an interesting reflection that can help us expand our horizons, whether or not we are believers in a divine entity: the logic of being. human is not enough to understand all the phenomena that take place in the universe.
The superb characteristic of our species, the one that leads us to repeat phrases like "we are the dominant species on the planet" or "we enjoy an intelligence far superior to that of animals", places us in a position similar to that of a god, something that generates many conflicts and contradictory situations in religious people. On the one hand, we believe in a superior being, but on the other we consider ourselves insurmountable.
Humility usually appears late in our lives, and usually awakens when we are forced to face terrible situations, such as a serious illness or the death of a loved one. It is then, when the collision with reality leaves us stunned and without an apparent explanation, that we begin to see our limitations, to understand our nature a little more.
While religious people accept such tragic events as part of divine design, atheists can explain them as the inevitable encounter with chance, or with the balance of life itself, that invisible force that makes only some sick, that leaves only some orphans. some, the same one that led the dinosaurs to extinction and that is probably waiting for the moment to assign us the same fate .