Coincidence

[FaithlessThinker]

Do you believe in coincidences? Why or why not?

 

[5810Singer]

That really depends on your definition: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/coincidence

This definition (although it's not well worded) is the one I'll refer to: "a chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected".

I think "having the appearance of being connected" is more fitting to the usage of the word that I most often hear.

I've witnessed coincidental happenings, and read about many more,....I don't read anything into them,....everything's got to happen sometime and someplace, and probability dictates that sometimes when things happen they'll seem pretty lucky, miraculous, spooky, etc.

 

[Aught3]

How does one believe in coincidences? Believe in them to do what?

 

[Ozymandyus]

I don't understand this question at all.

Do I believe that often, things will coincide? That either two things will happen at the same time, or that a similar thing will happen at two different times? Um, Yes.

Do I believe it necessarily means something special about that coincidence? No.

The brain is constantly searching for patterns, and the colloquial use of the term coincidence is describing what happens when the brain gets it wrong and links two unrelated things. If it's a real underlying pattern that is connecting the two events or things that we are calling a 'coincidence' then it immediately stops being the thing we colloquially call a coincidence and becomes something real - a related event, a connection, whatever.

 

[Case]

As the previous posters have pointed out, there is nothing to be believed in, here...

There are two linguistic main uses of coincidence in the English language I can think of right now:

"Just a coincidence.": dismissing the notion that two or more facts/events could be linked.
"What a coincidence!": explicitly stating that two or more facts/events are not linked while implying that they actually are linked, possibly by metaphysical concepts such as fate.

So it seems to me the question you're asking is either a trick question (as it resembles something I like to do: to ask people whether they believe in theories) or something like "Do you not believe in fate/determinism?"

 

[FaithlessThinker]

Thank you all for your valuable replies, and nice vote results. Not even one vote for "No" so far!

I formed the question from the fact that when coincidences happen, some people almost exclaim "What a coincidence!" but then quickly change to "Oh, but I don't believe in coincidences." They believe something along the lines of fate/determinism, that everything that happens must have a reason for it. A writeup I wrote earlier:

Coincidences happen, and are not necessarily non-causal. Coincidences do not require you to believe in them in order to exist, nor does your disbelief in them somehow mean they don't exist. Coincidence simply means two things happening at the same time, and one does not cause the other (or vice versa). Unlike the dictionary definition, they do not have to be surprising, miraculous or striking.

Human beings are susceptible to a very basic flaw in their thinking and observations. Once we expect to find something, it's easy for us to fool ourselves into "finding" it wherever we look. So if we look for a reason why a certain coincidence happened, we could come up with all sorts of reasons. We could even say "Well, there must be some reason, I just don't know yet."

Sometimes people do act on coincidences and sometimes get results that are favourable to them. This also brings to light another basic flaw in human beings, the confirmation bias. It means we tend to remember the things that positively appeal to us, and forget things that don't. If out of hundred coincidences that a person observed, let's say five of them has some kind of special appeal to the person (like being led to form a new friendship or having her life saved), she is much more likely to remember these five coincidence than the 95 other coincidences.

An example would be like this: Suppose you and another stranger purchase the same drink at the same drink store at the same time, is there a reason for it? It's merely a coincidence. But it doesn't mean the event was non-causal. You thought of buying a drink, you walked to the drink store, you decided on a particular drink, you used your mouth to ask for it. Something similar happened with the other person. So there are causes leading up to the coincidence.

But cause should not be confused with reason. A reason would be why it happened. It's neither what caused it to happen (aka "how it happened"), nor what happened (or what you did) after it happened. You can fabricate your own "reason" for this coincidence if you want to. Perhaps you could come up with the reason that this person might be a potential friend, and you would start chatting with him, forging a new friendship. Maybe this could lead to a business deal, or something like that. All these are not real reasons, but decisions made by you and consequences of those decisions.

And there could many instances where you would have bought the same food or drink as a stranger, or used the same pen, or sitting together in the same class room, or anything. In fact you can find millions of coincidences if you just look for them. A lot of people are coincidentally travelling on the same bus, train or flight at this exact moment. Any reason? Nothing really, it was just caused by them wanting or having to go through the same route.

We as humans don't remember thousands of coincidences that occur in our lives but because of confirmation bias, we remember the ones that do have some special meaning as to what happened when we acted on them.

Yes, it's ridiculous to a rational mind to think that we have to believe in coincidence. True enough, I don't believe in coincidences. But I know that coincidences happen in this universe. It's a fact.

The purpose of this discussion is to gather the intelligent answers you people with thinking minds can give a person who says "I don't believe in coincidences." I welcome more answers!

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

Some things are coincidences others things are caused. Coincidence is a construct of mind when trying to establish paterns and finds one that really isn't.

 

[MRaverz]

Coincidences are more common than you think, but only because there is a near infinite amount of possible coincidences which could occur.

So in that case, they're pretty rare - there's just a lot of opportunities for one to occur.