Luck

[SalixIncendium]

Do you believe in luck? Anyone can answer, but I'm mostly curious about atheist responses.

If you do believe in luck? If so, why?

If you believe in luck but lack any believe in gods, why does luck warrant belief while gods do not?

 

[Orbit]

Luck is just being in the right place at the right time. I don't see it as something supernatural.

 

[Ella S.]

I'm an atheist. I don't believe in "luck" in the sense of some sort of essence or force, like with lucky 7's, 4 leaf clovers, horseshoes, or the bad luck of black cats, walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, etc.

I do believe in favorable and unfavorable events that occur outside of our control. I refer to that as luck.

If you get good RNG in a video game, I would call that lucky, but I don't think there's anything going on outside of a pseudo-random number generator.

I think some people have had an extraordinary amount of good luck and others have had an extraordinary amount of poor luck, but I think that's mostly a value claim or an opinion. What makes something lucky or unlucky is based solely on whether we evaluate it as being in our favor or not, in the way I use the term.

I might call devastatingly bad or good luck an "act of God," but this is purely by linguistic convention.

 

[F1fan]

There is random luck. I have been extraordinarily lucky in my life.

Some years ago an English psychologist wondered why some folks have really good luck and others have bad luck. He studdiythis and wrote a book called The Luck Factor. The author is named Wiseman. I heard him interviewed but never read the book. His conclusion was that people who have good luck tend to have bigger social circles and are more likely to interact with people. In essence they make more opportunities. The luck follows opportunities.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Do you believe in luck?

Defined how?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Defined how?

Luck - a force that brings good fortune or adversity.

Definition of LUCK

a force that brings good fortune or adversity; the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual; favoring chance; also : success… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Luck - a force that brings good fortune or adversity.

Definition of LUCK

a force that brings good fortune or adversity; the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual; favoring chance; also : success… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

I do not believe in luck as "a force that brings good fortune or adversity."

 

[Ella S.]

There is random luck. I have been extraordinarily lucky in my life.

Some years ago an English psychologist wondered why some folks have really good luck and others have bad luck. He studdiythis and wrote a book called The Luck Factor. The author is named Wiseman. I heard him interviewed but never read the book. His conclusion was that people who have good luck tend to have bigger social circles and are more likely to interact with people. In essence they make more opportunities. The luck follows opportunities.

To flip it around, trying to overachieve in life with no social circle is playing life in challenge mode, making it all the more impressive when you manage to accomplish great things.

 

[YmirGF]

Do you believe in luck? Anyone can answer, but I'm mostly curious about atheist responses.

If you do believe in luck? If so, why?

If you believe in luck but lack any believe in gods, why does luck warrant belief while gods do not?

I prefer to live in a world where actions have consequences and life thwarts my feeble expectations.

 

[ChristineM]

Do you believe in luck?

Although I'll sometimes say "phew, that was lucky" i don't actually believe in luck. Things happen but can be explained.

 

[Stevicus]

Do you believe in luck? Anyone can answer, but I'm mostly curious about atheist responses.

If you do believe in luck? If so, why?

If you believe in luck but lack any believe in gods, why does luck warrant belief while gods do not?

I'm reminded of a time when my brother and I were playing pool. He made what I thought was a "lucky shot." He countered and said that it wasn't luck, but "unplanned skill."

 

[The Hammer]

Yes

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Do you believe in luck? Anyone can answer, but I'm mostly curious about atheist responses.

If you do believe in luck? If so, why?

If you believe in luck but lack any believe in gods, why does luck warrant belief while gods do not?

My younger life was playing Professional Golf.

Both Arnold Palmer and Gary Player used a good saying when it was put to them by reporters that they had a lucky day.

They offered in return "The more I practice the luckier I get."

I can offer that is the case.

Regards Tony

 

[We Never Know]

You are in an accident that totals your car but you didn't get a scratch.
Are you lucky you didn't get hurt?
Or
Are you unlucky because you had a accident?

 

[ChristineM]

"The more I practice the luckier I get."

Spot on

 

[RestlessSoul]

What is luck? I’d suggest it’s any outcome we can’t account for. Luck could be random, or it could be determined by causes we are simply ignorant of.

Whatever the cause, we’re powerless over many of the things that affect us in life; but we’re not powerless over how we respond or react.

 

[RestlessSoul]

You are in an accident that totals your car but you didn't get a scratch.
Are you lucky you didn't get hurt?
Or
Are you unlucky because you had a accident?

You walk out of a wreck, somebody up there likes you.

My whole life was once a wreck, and I put my walking away from that relatively unscathed down to exactly that; God or the Universe smiled on me, not gonna knock it.

 

[Jedster]

Several decades ago I was playing roulette and lost almost most of my cash.
I had one half-crown left and for some reason unknown to me, I put in on 20 black, which came up.
I the took out 5 friends for steak & chips.
I was lucky.

 

[Bird123]

Do you believe in luck? Anyone can answer, but I'm mostly curious about atheist responses.

If you do believe in luck? If so, why?

If you believe in luck but lack any believe in gods, why does luck warrant belief while gods do not?

So, has random chance worked in your favor? Does random chance even exist?

Lucky? We all have the power to Choose what we deem important. Each will choose for themselves what is good and what is bad. Each can say they have either incredible good luck, bad luck or no luck at all. Isn't it all no more than a simple choice?

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[Quintessence]

I do not believe in luck as "a force that brings good fortune or adversity."

If framed this way, neither do I - see it as more of an appellation some humans apply to events they deem in some way improbable or extraordinary. Put another way, it's a colloquial name for statistical outliers. Not really a thing my own tradition pays much if any mind. Synchronicity on the other hand? That's another story...