Spidey: To answer your question about having to finish school first the answer is no, simply because most Popes of the catholic church are chosen from Europe and Rome itself where people enroll in the priesthood at a much earlier age. Its like very intense sunday school insted of seminary school.
Rando:
If for some reason your choices in life lead you away from your destiny then you simply don't reach your destiny. As I've said before, you don't have to get to your destiny, at least not on the first try. But your destiny is signified as being the best you can achieve in life or as as effect that when you go has profound ripple effects on others, your destiny isn't always about just you.
Also with the Pope example continuing.
Yes, you are correct that in the simple term that in order to go from point A to point B, you must take a path of steps, however those steps may be very broad and distinct from person to person.
Besides that, this very argument can prove that destiny could exist. As you are stating you must go from point A to point B to get to destination C. Therefore you have a set path you must follow and no free will about it. And as I'm sure many history books will show, we've had quite a few popes over time. Therefore they must have been destined to be popes.
The other thing that you should consider is that becoming pope or president even, is not something we simply choose to do on a whim. Human nature forces us to think about it and consider it and plan a path to reach our desired end result, thus removing free will as once again we must go from point A to B, to reach destination C.
What if Man-Who-Would-Be-Pope desides to convert to Hinduism?
Then you could still become pope. As the very definition of pope does not limit to being catholic. For instance the following are two of the several definitions of pope.
3; The male head of some non-Christian religions: the Taoist pope. (could also be a hindu pope as well)
4; A person considered to have unquestioned authority: the pope of surrealism.
Also, destiny isn't so precise to say, "You will be Pope." It will say something more like, "You will become a religious leader of peoples."
Duke:
I'll try to give you some answers, or at least theories that can explain in a way your questions.
When exactly is each person's road to their destiny planned?
No one knows for sure, I personally believe its when your soul comes into existence. Destiny is very much a force that goes with your spirt/shen/katra depending on what you wish to call it.
I don't believe it could be at birth because your around for about 7 months before that, technically 9, but your nothing but goo for the first 2.
Who or what decides these fates anyway? I'm not askin' the same question again, what I mean is: why is one guy's destiny is to be executed and the other's is to become the next Bill Gates? It doesn't sound fair *at all*.
Well, how many times have we heard that life isn't fair, or thought it. I know I have on hundreds of occasions and find that its a generally accepted theory that life isn't fair.
The force of destiny isn't fair by our human terms, its not politically correct or biased in any way. It just exists with no form of definable boundaries.
many babies dies just months, days, and heck, hours after they are born...
Then they simply don't reach their destiny. Remember that destiny is a spiritual force, it can't make us with perfect bodies all the time and when that happens our physical existence is ended prematurely. Our spirits simply get in line to be born again unless it was our destiny to die that way. Its not fair or nice at all I know, but very few things in life are.