The reality of Destiny entails belief in a personal deity (albeit, perhaps implicitly)

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My family has been enjoying re-watching (on DVD) the 2008 BBC series of Merlin, each episode of which begins with a voice-over (from the magical dragon):

In a land of myth, and a time of magic, the Destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name... Merlin.



In this series there is an interesting difference between the surface and depth. On the surface all references to religion in the court of Camelot have been excluded: there are no priests, to the extent that when Arthur is crowned it is done by the castle librarian (mischievously named Geoffrey of Monmouth)!

But, because the whole story arc is driven by the entwined Destiny of Merlin and Arthur, although no official religion is mentioned, nonetheless a benign deity is necessarily implied by the reality of Destiny.

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It seems that when it comes to serious imaginative literature, Destiny is a necessity - whether it is given a name or simply assumed - as in Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter. And where there is Destiny there must be deity; and not just any deity but a personal god.

Because Destiny necessarily implies that the world is planned with a purpose that includes both the group (society) and also the individual - and this can only be a consequence of there being a god with a personal concern with both 'nations' and individual persons; and both power and  the will to plan and shape multiple events of the world.

Of course, many people who believe in Destiny - or behave or create in ways that demonstrate such an implicit belief - would deny a belief in deity, and perhaps especially deny a belief in a personal god.

Nevertheless, that is exactly what they are assuming; and their failure to recognize and acknowledge the fact must be a failure of rational consistency or of honesty.

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On this basis, an implicit belief in a personal god is much more common than would be suspected. For instance, anyone who really believes in the validity of the Hero Quest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA

is covertly a believer in personal deity.

So, rationally, such a person's next step ought to be to understand, to find out more about, this personal god in which they already believe.

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Previous reference: http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/his-name-lermin.html
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