A matter of coincidence

[NobbyNobbs]

I had an epiphany today, and need to share. But first, a little story.

On my way in to work today, quite early in the morning, I stopped at a convenience store for gas. On the way out of the store I held the door for an Amish man and his two sons, dressed traditionally. Despite my resolve, I found myself...well, not staring, exactly, but sneaking glances at their clothing.

On the way back to my car and out of the parking lot, back to the highway, my mind started to wander thus:

Why did I stare? Well, it's not something we see too often. When faced with something like that, or, for example, a rainbow, we don't get to look at it at our leisure and inspect it like we do with other items in everyday life. Like a rainbow, it's there and gone, and we want to see as much of it as we can in the meanwhile.

By this time, I got back to the highway. Driving rather quickly, I caught up to a car and did a double-take. Its license plate read: RAYNBOW.

And here's where I had my epiphany. A paranormalist would have said I was psychic. A conspiracy theorist would have said that the contrails were affecting my brain. And a religious person would have said it was a sign from God.

But a rational thinker accepts the idea that coincidences can, and do, happen. Indeed, with all the possibilities in the world, it would be awfully strange if they didn't. And coincidences are wonderful things. I looked at that license plate and thought, "Wow! How cool!".

You don't need psipowers, or conspiracies, or religion to make the universe a wonderful, amazing, surprising place. Coincidences work quite well in their stead.

[yairhol]

Yep, just think of the thousands and thousands of times that you've thought about different puzzles, questions, thoughts, objects, people, feelings and every other thing in the world but just forgot about it afterwards because nothing happened later that reminded you of them. That's why this one time is so rare and rightfully so called a coincidence.
Woo believers remember these coincidences in life and give them as anecdotal evidence for some beliefs of theirs.

Regards,
Yair

[ohp]

I remember having a problem with a specific piece of computer hardware.. Searched for at least a week - eventually found a web page which described my problem and the exact solution.

And it was written by a guy who worked in the same office as me.

[yairhol]

I remember having a problem with a specific piece of computer hardware.. Searched for at least a week - eventually found a web page which described my problem and the exact solution.

And it was written by a guy who worked in the same office as me.

That's not a similar example to the OP.
Here you searched for the answer for a freakin' week. In the OP he did not do anything active other than think about his meeting with the weirdos.
You could say that the OP had used "The Secret" in order to attract the "raynbow" car.
I bet that if he had talked to the people inside the car he would have found out that they play an important part in his life. The OP is strong with the power of (horns please) ..........."The Secret".

You have yet much to learn young apprentice.

Regards,
Yair

[Garrette]

I had an epiphany today, and need to share. But first, a little story.

On my way in to work today, quite early in the morning, I stopped at a convenience store for gas. On the way out of the store I held the door for an Amish man and his two sons, dressed traditionally. Despite my resolve, I found myself...well, not staring, exactly, but sneaking glances at their clothing.

On the way back to my car and out of the parking lot, back to the highway, my mind started to wander thus:

Why did I stare? Well, it's not something we see too often. When faced with something like that, or, for example, a rainbow, we don't get to look at it at our leisure and inspect it like we do with other items in everyday life. Like a rainbow, it's there and gone, and we want to see as much of it as we can in the meanwhile.

By this time, I got back to the highway. Driving rather quickly, I caught up to a car and did a double-take. Its license plate read: RAYNBOW.

And here's where I had my epiphany. A paranormalist would have said I was psychic. A conspiracy theorist would have said that the contrails were affecting my brain. And a religious person would have said it was a sign from God.

But a rational thinker accepts the idea that coincidences can, and do, happen. Indeed, with all the possibilities in the world, it would be awfully strange if they didn't. And coincidences are wonderful things. I looked at that license plate and thought, "Wow! How cool!".

You don't need psipowers, or conspiracies, or religion to make the universe a wonderful, amazing, surprising place. Coincidences work quite well in their stead.You are a typical skeptic denialist.

You have psychic powers but are afraid to acknowledge them.

I leave it to those who know my posting history to determine if I am serious.

[Cuddles]

I was thinking of posting a thread like this...

[ohp]

That's not a similar example to the OP.
Here you searched for the answer for a freakin' week. In the OP he did not do anything active other than think about his meeting with the weirdos.
You could say that the OP had used "The Secret" in order to attract the "raynbow" car.
I bet that if he had talked to the people inside the car he would have found out that they play an important part in his life. The OP is strong with the power of (horns please) ..........."The Secret".

You have yet much to learn young apprentice.

Regards,
Yair


It's a coincidence. Don't I get points for that?

[yairhol]

You get points only for your original avatar.
I'd give it 3 points max.

Regards,
Yair

[ohp]

Wow. 3 points. That's exactly the number of points I need to get a frying pan with a built in radio.

What a coincidence, huh?

Here's another one.... I was on holiday in Wales, and during a moment of boredom, I reach down the back of this really old sofa in the cottage where we stayed. I found about 30 pens, 1 pound fifty in small change, and the watch I had lost a year previously.

[yairhol]

Wow. 3 points. That's exactly the number of points I need to get a frying pan with a built in radio.

What a coincidence, huh?

Here's another one.... I was on holiday in Wales, and during a moment of boredom, I reach down the back of this really old sofa in the cottage where we stayed. I found about 30 pens, 1 pound fifty in small change, and the watch I had lost a year previously.

If you could only find, at the back of the old sofa,a web page which described my problem and the exact solution, now that would be a coincedence.

Regards,
Yair

[jimmygun]

Yesterday I was driving to work with a gift for a young couple and their new house. I thought to myself that I might have put on the card a few words from John Denver's song 'Back Home Again'. I should have thought about it earlier so I could get the words I wanted from the internet. Oh well, too late.

I gave them the gift right after work and got into my truck to head for home and what was playing on the radio? 'Whole Lotta Love' by Led Zeppelin. Go figure!

[yairhol]

Yesterday I was driving to work with a gift for a young couple and their new house. I thought to myself that I might have put on the card a few words from John Denver's song 'Back Home Again'. I should have thought about it earlier so I could get the words I wanted from the internet. Oh well, too late.

I gave them the gift right after work and got into my truck to head for home and what was playing on the radio? 'Whole Lotta Love' by Led Zeppelin. Go figure!

You had me fooled...

You should be a story teller.
Like pen and teller.

Regards,
Yair

[gfunkusarelius]

is there any chance you saw the "raynbow" plate first, without thinking about it? maybe not, but i have had several cases where i had that "wow i was just thinking of that" coincidence only to realize that it wasn't so unusual at all since the one thing subconsciously lead me to think of the other.

[ohp]

I do think that lack of understanding of probability theory is often something that exploited by practitioners of woo - your average spirit botherer will get better hits with a larger audience. I wonder if they consciously or subconsciously become more specific with larger audiences?

"I'm getting... a Cordelia... she's pointing to an ice pick that is protruding from her neck... she appears to be at Hank's mountaineering supplies at 34 Hill Road, Birmingham, and the date is 4th August 1973..."

"..Anyone...?"

"Umm.. My Dad used to own an ice pick..."

"Sorry darling, I'm looking for a woman called cordelia.."

[-Fran-]

Why did I stare? Well, it's not something we see too often. When faced with something like that, or, for example, a rainbow, we don't get to look at it at our leisure and inspect it like we do with other items in everyday life. Like a rainbow, it's there and gone, and we want to see as much of it as we can in the meanwhile.


I like the analogy :) The Amish - Rainbow people, who's here and gone...

ETA
I started a thread like this a while back, and several people posted, telling about some pretty cool coincidences they had experienced. Personally I liked the one with the gym shoes, among others :)

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=88053

That's not a similar example to the OP.

Nitpicking! They were both coincidences. The fact that one of them looked for an answer all week have no effect on the actual coincidence, which was that the answer he/she finally found turned out to be written by a co-worker.

You are a typical skeptic denialist.

You have psychic powers but are afraid to acknowledge them.

I leave it to those who know my posting history to determine if I am serious.

I think you're joking :) At least I hope so.. :( I've heard this many enough times, though, from people being very serious, that it really annoys the ---- out of me :rolleyes:

[Whiplash]

I have an interesting coincidence that's gonna sound like BS but it's true, and I don't see it as anything other than a coincidence.

When I was 17, I was over at my girlfiends older sisters home, the two of them, myself and a friend were all sitting around the kitchen table talking. For some reason we got on the subject of the Devil. My ex and her sister were very religious. The sister had a picture of Jesus hanging up in the kitchen.

As I said, this is going to sound like BS, but it's absolutely true. As we were talking.. I don't even remember specifically what we were saying, but it was about the devil.. the picture of Jesus fell off the wall.

Believe or not believe, that is fine. I'm not going to say it's proof of anything. I don't believe it was proof of anything. I believe, as this thread describes, it was just a crazy coincidence that many people could draw many strange beliefs from. I am not one of them. But it really did happen. The string it was hanging by had broken, nail was still in place. I know it sounds like BS.. I've been hesitant to tell the story here for a long time, but always wanted to, because it's true.

[-Fran-]

I have an interesting coincidence that's gonna sound like BS but it's true, and I don't see it as anything other than a coincidence.

When I was 17, I was over at my girlfiends older sisters home, the two of them, myself and a friend were all sitting around the kitchen table talking. For some reason we got on the subject of the Devil. My ex and her sister were very religious. The sister had a picture of Jesus hanging up in the kitchen.

As I said, this is going to sound like BS, but it's absolutely true. As we were talking.. I don't even remember specifically what we were saying, but it was about the devil.. the picture of Jesus fell off the wall.

Believe or not believe, that is fine. I'm not going to say it's proof of anything. I don't believe it was proof of anything. I believe, as this thread describes, it was just a crazy coincidence that many people could draw many strange beliefs from. I am not one of them. But it really did happen. The string it was hanging by had broken, nail was still in place. I know it sounds like BS.. I've been hesitant to tell the story here for a long time, but always wanted to, because it's true.

I believe it happened! It's not so weird really. I mean it has happened to me many times that things have fallen off the wall, or tilted, or broke, and so on, while I was in a discussion about something with someone. And if the thing that broke/fell/whatever in any way could be said to be related to what we were talking about, we would interpret it as an odd coincidence if we were more of the skeptical kind, and as some sort of paranormal/meaningful event if we were of a more wooish nature.

And you are right, many people would probably draw many strange ideas from that. Most Christians would probably say that it was a protest from Jesus/God in some way, that you should not talk of such things. Which would be so typical of Jesus I suppose, he seemed to like to get himself hurt to prove some vague point ;) Though I guess he could just as well have tried to draw attention to his sorry state as forever trapped in the Christian doctrine, and that he wanted to be in on your discussion about the Devil :D

No, seriously. A picture of Jesus has so many possible connotations to it, that I think you could have connected "his fall" to pretty much any subject you might have talked about at the time.

[Whiplash]

No, seriously. A picture of Jesus has so many possible connotations to it, that I think you could have connected "his fall" to pretty much any subject you might have talked about at the time.

"So, how about those Packers? Maybe this year they'll do better things?"

*crash*

"Wow, Jesus must be a Bears fan"

:)

[-Fran-]

"So, how about those Packers? Maybe this year they'll do better things?"

*crash*

"Wow, Jesus must be a Bears fan"

:)

LOL
Exactly!!