do you believe in chance?
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hsilgne
Frustrated in Hooterville.
Yes I believe in chance. I think 'odds' is a better term to use. For example. If I'm dealt the Ace of hearts and Ace of spades in Hold'em poker... the odds are '0' that someone else has the Ace of hearts and/or the Ace of spades.... in other words, there is no chance of someone else holding the Ace of hearts or Ace of spades. See?
Pocket Aces are exciting. But many times, especially if you're playing on-line, they burn you. That's because allot of donks play poker on-line and stay in when they should fold. Donks always hurt your chances(or odds) to win. It's very frustrating playing with donks because they play very foolishly yet will sometimes get rewarded for their foolishness. And that only encourages them to continue playing foolishly. And then it can be like going round and round on a gerbil wheel. Very frustrating. BTW... There are allot of donks on OBOB as well. Also, very frustrating. Anyways, I'm getting off topic... back to your question(s)...
I also believe in coincidence. Which is just another way of saying, extremely low chances(or odds). Let's say, for example, we started a game of hold'em and I was dealt those pocket Aces on the very first hand of the night. Depending on how many players there are the chance(or odds) of that happening are pretty low... like 1 in 200 or something... I forget. But what if we played another game a week later and, once again, I get dealt a pair of aces on the very first hand of the night? I would call that a coincidence. Someone might say... "Wow, what a coincidence!".... then again, another person might say... "Holy smokes, what are the odds of that happening?"
See?
Pocket Aces are exciting. But many times, especially if you're playing on-line, they burn you. That's because allot of donks play poker on-line and stay in when they should fold. Donks always hurt your chances(or odds) to win. It's very frustrating playing with donks because they play very foolishly yet will sometimes get rewarded for their foolishness. And that only encourages them to continue playing foolishly. And then it can be like going round and round on a gerbil wheel. Very frustrating. BTW... There are allot of donks on OBOB as well. Also, very frustrating. Anyways, I'm getting off topic... back to your question(s)...
I also believe in coincidence. Which is just another way of saying, extremely low chances(or odds). Let's say, for example, we started a game of hold'em and I was dealt those pocket Aces on the very first hand of the night. Depending on how many players there are the chance(or odds) of that happening are pretty low... like 1 in 200 or something... I forget. But what if we played another game a week later and, once again, I get dealt a pair of aces on the very first hand of the night? I would call that a coincidence. Someone might say... "Wow, what a coincidence!".... then again, another person might say... "Holy smokes, what are the odds of that happening?"
See?
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MoonlessNight
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The link in the OP seems to be broken.
On the subject of chance, I think that the notion of chance is useful, but that it is not something which exists as a cause or an actor. Chance is instead something which properly describes our perception of events. Aristotle give the following example:
That is the man went to a certain place to collecting the subscriptions "by chance" because he did expect to collect subscriptions when he set out. But he did have a reason for setting out to that location, and it was not some nebulous "chance" which sent him there. Likewise when he got there he collected the subscriptions in accordance with his general plans to collect subscriptions and his observation that he was in a good place to collect the money (because he saw likely donors there or for some similar reason). We say that he got the subscriptions "by chance" because he did not expect to gather them at that time, but if he had more information on setting out he would have expected that result.
We might also use "by chance" to indicate that the result is an unforeseen consequence which was not intended. Michael Flynn likes to use the example of a hammer that falls on a man who is walking to work (I am probably differing in the specifics from his standard description of the event). But the man was following the same route that he always used to go lunch, the hammer fell from a scaffolding where a construction worker had put his tools down at his feet, and the hammer fell because the worker kicked it due to the shock he received when he discovered that the meat in his sandwich was spoiled. There is a reason for everything that happens in the chain of events and at no point does "chance" intervene. But when we see the man get brained by that hammer we say it happened by "chance" since the worker did not intend to kill the man with the hammer, nor could he foresee the event (and the hammer itself was merely following its nature to head towards the gravitational mass of the Earth). In contrast if the worker had thrown the hammer to kill the man we would not say that the event happened "by chance" (though if he did so and another pedestrian tripped and fell into the way of the hammer instead of the intended victim, we would say that it happened "by chance.")
Probability properly speaking is then the effort to quantify what is likely in the face of unknown information. Random variables are convenient philosophical objects, and probability distributions based off of them are perfectly fine mathematical objects (though they can always be interpreted in ways that have nothing to do with probability or chance), but I don't think that there is reason to think that anything in the real world happens "by chance." There is coincidence, but that is simply a way for us to express that an event is unfamiliar or astounding to us. (Consider that people would say that it is "a coincidence" for a coin to show five heads in five flips, but would not say that it is a coincidence to see a head, then two tails, then two heads, even though probability tells us that the two chains of events are equally likely. The difference is that one seems astounding to us.)
But on another level we must remember that God is the author of life, so that coincidences are not necessarily without meaning. Suppose that in a crime novel the killer is witnessed by someone running late to work who decides to take a detour through the lawn of the house where the murder is occurring (and this witness has never been late to work previously). In the reality of the story this is a coincidence: there is a reason for the character to be in that lawn but it isn't to witness a murder, and it seems astounding that he would just so happen to be late on the day when he would witness a crime because of it. As readers we recognize that this is a vehicle for the author to introduce an unlikely witness and so add more clues in the middle of the investigation. That is, for the characters in the story the event was without meaning but it was full of meaning for the author.
In the same way things which may seem like coincidences to us can be given meaning through God. Consider how many of the people that Jesus meets could be said to be encountered "by coincidence." If He had walked by the shore at a different time, would he have encountered Peter and Andrew? Was it then "caused by chance" that Peter should be given the keys to heaven later on?
On the subject of chance, I think that the notion of chance is useful, but that it is not something which exists as a cause or an actor. Chance is instead something which properly describes our perception of events. Aristotle give the following example:
That is the man went to a certain place to collecting the subscriptions "by chance" because he did expect to collect subscriptions when he set out. But he did have a reason for setting out to that location, and it was not some nebulous "chance" which sent him there. Likewise when he got there he collected the subscriptions in accordance with his general plans to collect subscriptions and his observation that he was in a good place to collect the money (because he saw likely donors there or for some similar reason). We say that he got the subscriptions "by chance" because he did not expect to gather them at that time, but if he had more information on setting out he would have expected that result.
We might also use "by chance" to indicate that the result is an unforeseen consequence which was not intended. Michael Flynn likes to use the example of a hammer that falls on a man who is walking to work (I am probably differing in the specifics from his standard description of the event). But the man was following the same route that he always used to go lunch, the hammer fell from a scaffolding where a construction worker had put his tools down at his feet, and the hammer fell because the worker kicked it due to the shock he received when he discovered that the meat in his sandwich was spoiled. There is a reason for everything that happens in the chain of events and at no point does "chance" intervene. But when we see the man get brained by that hammer we say it happened by "chance" since the worker did not intend to kill the man with the hammer, nor could he foresee the event (and the hammer itself was merely following its nature to head towards the gravitational mass of the Earth). In contrast if the worker had thrown the hammer to kill the man we would not say that the event happened "by chance" (though if he did so and another pedestrian tripped and fell into the way of the hammer instead of the intended victim, we would say that it happened "by chance.")
Probability properly speaking is then the effort to quantify what is likely in the face of unknown information. Random variables are convenient philosophical objects, and probability distributions based off of them are perfectly fine mathematical objects (though they can always be interpreted in ways that have nothing to do with probability or chance), but I don't think that there is reason to think that anything in the real world happens "by chance." There is coincidence, but that is simply a way for us to express that an event is unfamiliar or astounding to us. (Consider that people would say that it is "a coincidence" for a coin to show five heads in five flips, but would not say that it is a coincidence to see a head, then two tails, then two heads, even though probability tells us that the two chains of events are equally likely. The difference is that one seems astounding to us.)
But on another level we must remember that God is the author of life, so that coincidences are not necessarily without meaning. Suppose that in a crime novel the killer is witnessed by someone running late to work who decides to take a detour through the lawn of the house where the murder is occurring (and this witness has never been late to work previously). In the reality of the story this is a coincidence: there is a reason for the character to be in that lawn but it isn't to witness a murder, and it seems astounding that he would just so happen to be late on the day when he would witness a crime because of it. As readers we recognize that this is a vehicle for the author to introduce an unlikely witness and so add more clues in the middle of the investigation. That is, for the characters in the story the event was without meaning but it was full of meaning for the author.
In the same way things which may seem like coincidences to us can be given meaning through God. Consider how many of the people that Jesus meets could be said to be encountered "by coincidence." If He had walked by the shore at a different time, would he have encountered Peter and Andrew? Was it then "caused by chance" that Peter should be given the keys to heaven later on?
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SolomonVII
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Is this the link?
http://aleteia.org/2015/09/01/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-gives-homily-about-evil/
I am not too sure how it applies to the OP
http://aleteia.org/2015/09/01/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-gives-homily-about-evil/
I am not too sure how it applies to the OP
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