There is no such thing as coincidence

[khaosworks]

7 dead on the shuttle Columbia, including Israeli Colonel Ilan Ramon, which breaks up over Palestine, Texas.

7 dead in an avalanche in British Columbia.

Earthquake in California South-East of San Ramon.

The cosmic joker is working overtime, isn't he?

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Itty bitty quakes, though (as I pointed out in my journal) -- we get these swarms from time to time. I could feel them, things rattled, that's all. Swarms just like them, and worse, happen every day somewhere in the world, in Turkey, Italy, Japan, Indonesia, Chile, Alaska, where ever quakes are relatively common.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

I was trying to point out the coincidences in the various names - Israel, Palestine TX, Columbia, British Columbia, Ilan Ramon, San Ramon...

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Um. Oh. :)

Ideas on design and prediction.

[biophile6.livejournal.com]

I recall turning the corner on my thinking regarding coincidence after reading a book. The thing is, everything looks planned in retrospect. It's a trick of perspective. Consider breaking a pane of glass, for instance. Now, you might predict that it would be nearly impossible for a 6 gram piece with three points to land in a circle you draw on the other side. And thats true. But, break the glass, and look at all the *other* things that were incredibly unpredictable, and which went ahead and happened, anyway. Wouldn't predicting those falls and masses be hard to do? Look forward: hard to see design. Look backward: easy.

All things, every day, are miraculous. Things HAVE to happen that way.

Makes things all the more interesting.