The belief that all events are predetermined by fate is called fatalism.
Fatalism holds that events, actions, and outcomes are inevitable because they are fixed by fate or destiny. In its strongest form, it implies that human beings cannot alter what will happen, regardless of their choices or efforts. The idea appears in many religious, mythological, and philosophical traditions.
Fatalism is often confused with determinism, but the terms are not identical. Determinism explains events through an unbroken chain of prior causes and natural laws. Fatalism instead emphasizes that the outcome is unavoidable, without necessarily requiring a specific causal explanation. Predestination is a related idea in which a deity determines future events, while karma focuses on the consequences of actions rather than pure inevitability.
Ancient philosophers debated whether fatalism makes action pointless. The “lazy argument,” discussed by Aristotle and later writers such as Cicero, asked whether seeking help was useless if an outcome was already fated. Stoic philosophers argued that actions could themselves be part of the chain of fate.