Re: Can I still be an atheist with this sort-of coincidence?

[jimmorrisonbabe]

Woohhhh kidnapkid, that is quite a set of coincidences! I think that beats my story

[Kylyssa]

I got mugged twice in one day, what's the likelihood of that?  

When my brother was in college he came home for a surprise visit via the Greyhound bus.  He had to get picked up (because we lived about ten miles from town) but he ran out of coins for the payphone.  At that very moment, my dad and I pulled up, going to the grocery store that the bus station shared a parking lot with.

I'm still an atheist and so are they.

[Achaios]

Most of the times we humans, try to find out patterns and alikes in our daily lives. Without having a distinct pattern on something, someone might argue that our brains would be unable to properly function (I am sorry if my syntax and grammar are a bit odd to say the least).
When we cannot trace or find a useful pattern our minds make one. we need them in order to think. We function by comparing similars. When we see something new we say "hmm this is something like this or that" etc.
The problem arises if you come to think that one day we might see something new, something we cannot find any similarity to any of situations/things etc in our daily lives.
Coincidence is one of those things. When we are struggling to find a pattern subconsiously and we cannot get to a logic argument, then we name it a coincidence. In reality it is just a probability with a really low "to happen" number say 1/10,000,000,000.. this doesn't mean it will never happen, but that there are a really low chance for it to happen.
this reminds me of something which comes as a funny story when you think of it...
A friend of mine is the 5th child of a family. All of them are born in really late November to late december December some days up and down and about 1 year apart.
She used to tell me what a big coincidence this is. So I try to debunk it (the scientist in me kicked in )
I realised her father's name is related to the Orthodox easter, so his name day is relevant to Greek Orthodox easter.
her mother is a really religious -faithful-etc woman...
So I summed this up in my mind..
a. sex only in order to produce offspring
b. sex as a name day gift or allowance (Easter occurs from March to May so having birth in Late November till end of December is more or less ok depending on the dates that Easter was during those years.
c. no birth control whatsoever
d. having 5 kids is one kid too many in order to continue to accept your wife's name day allowance (meant this one as a joke )

[Tank]

Sort answer Yes. Why would you think you could not be?

[Faradaympp]

I can one up your story and I'm still an atheist.

When I was young I had a hole in my heart and needed surgery.  The way my mom tells the story is that she was just at the mall and a random woman walks up to her.  This woman told her to make sure the blood for the transfusion was screened to be HIV free.  This was a time before most people knew anything about HIV.

I was way too young to remember this event but that's the way my mom tells it, assuming it is exactly how things happen it is quite an interesting coincidence.  However, one interesting coincidence that could have real world explanation (she overheard my mom talking about the surgery and happened to also enjoy reading about medical breakthroughs) is not a very good reason to think something magical happened.

This doesn't have much to do with the topic but seeing as all the major points have been covered I thought I might bring up the theory of six degrees of seperation. If you knew someone as a child and later met another person who turned out to be related to that same person you might comment that it's "a small world". The six degrees of seperation theory proposes that any one of us is only six meetings away from anyone in the world. Say, if you met someone, then met one of their friends, and on of his/her friends and so forth until you got up to the sixth friend of a friend, theoretically that sixth person could be any person in the world. Nowadays with the nearly viral apperance of social networking sites these meetings can be much easier.

I realize that I'm wandering around here but another thing I would like to point out is the assumption of "Great effect, great cause" which is the "logic" behind many conspiracy theories. The idea is that when a great or extraordinary event occurs most people attempt to find an extraordinary cause. For example, 9/11, the amount of conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 is ridiculous, but it was one of the most extraordinary(in this case meaning out of the ordinary    ) events of our time. Therefore it required some of the most extraordinary explications. The same holds true for many of the more prevalent conspiracy theories; Roswell, the Illuminati and the masons and the "assasination" of princess Diana.

P.S. really it's up to you to decide what you believe but there have been much stranger coincidences and they have yet to convert me.

[Ex-Muslim]

confirmatory bias

[Heretical Rants]

Yeah, I'm sure that at least one of the people that won the lottery multiple times prayed before each win, too.

[deryepes]

Why do people always think that a coincidence is in some way an act of God?
Let's call a coincidence a coincidence because there is nothing more to say about it.
Concurrence isn't godlike in my humble opinion.

[xSilverPhinx]

I got mugged twice in one day, what's the likelihood of that?  .

I never got mugged, yet. What's the likelihood of that these days?


And responding to the OP: seemingly small probabilities happen all the time, but when you analyse them coldly and in the broader perspective, the odds really aren't that significant to really hint at any plan or meaning.