Does the belief in luck equate to the belief in a interventionist god?

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A honest question. What's your view?

― peepee (peepee), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

Please Try Again

― dali madison's nut (donut), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

Not necessarily, but a belief in unicorns wouldn't need to be supported by a belief in talking snowmen either.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

Luck is just the effect of chance having a good side effect. One doesn't need to acknowledge higher powers to acknowledge luck... (as long as the person is also aware of both kinds of luck, of course.)

― dali madison's nut (donut), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
http://www.sugarscostumes.com/images/mascots/corporate/peoplechar/LuckyCharm.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

better covered here:

Acceptability/Legitimacy of Supernatural Beliefs

― Kate Classic (kate), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

By "luck", I don't mean "chance, but a force which drives things to either work out well, or end up poorly (ie. good luck or bad luck)

― peepee (peepee), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

Hmmm. I would suggest one slight alteration in the question: Does the belief you can influence your luck through non-consequential actions equate to a belief in an interventionist god?

Yes. Even using 'body english' when your bowling ball is headed for the gutter is a form of petitional prayer. It is an instinctual response. This instinct is one reason why religion will never wither away as a human activity.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

It's not petitional prayer, it's sympathetic magic, which predates established religion in human history by millennia, or possibly millions of years.

― Kate Classic (kate), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

True rasta man do not play card pack
True rasta man do not gamble

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

Aimless: Ya, that's part of it. But I was also thinking about some acquaintances who suggest that they are atheists, but also that they're "cursed" with bad luck and thus that's the reason their lives are so shitty.

― peepee (peepee), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

These friends know not whereof they speak.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

magic is a kind of religion too though.

it is true though. if you start using "whether you're lucky" as a thing that influences your decision making, then you're kind of basing your view of the world under a layer of perceived 'higher being' and i.e. actually kind of religious.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

a thing that happened can be lucky or unlucky, based on something that happened in spite of the odds. but to predict something based on something that falls outside of probability is quite probably religious.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

you can also of course factor in divine intervention in your probabilistic equations, in which case that'd be religious too

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Screaming at a race horse from the stands might egg him on! You never know.

― andy --, Monday, 12 December 2005 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

So I guess the answer is yes?

― peepee (peepee), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 06:18 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

I thought of Huk-L's post earlier today, and laughed.

― peepee (peepee), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:00 (nineteen years ago)

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