Is randomness part of what naturally occurs?

[alitaptap]

It isn’t supernatural, is it?

 

[Tonks40]

Depends on what you’re referring to. Randomness of thought, occurrences that bring about certain situations, creation of things and beings, etc.

Personally, I think nothing is random. There has to be a certain sense of order dictated beyond what man has control over. In a way, it’s not supernatural, but natural in the sense that God oversees everything.

 

[KathleenGee]

Pelegianism is randomness.

In Catholic thought, nothing happens without God allowing it. He is the Author of Life.

 

[tonyrey]

Randomness certainly isn’t supernatural because it is an irrational feature of physical existence. When individuals are killed in an earthquake there is no reason why they are singled out. They just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are the victims of an unfortunate coincidence. Sooner or later the laws of probability ensure that there will be accidents and disasters.

 

[Barbkw]

By percentage of occurance, detrimental genetic mutations are far greater within a species. Rarely is a mutation beneficial. Some of the articles I’ve read, even go so far out to say that there are 1000 detrimental mutations to 1 benefical mutation.

google.com/search?q=percentage+mutations+detrimental+to+beneficial&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7

At the present time, paleontology has found large variety within a species, but they have found little evidence of midrange (half / half) fossils that would tie the theory of evolution together.

Bearing in mind that in modern animals today, sexual reproduction is a closed system within most of their species. Cows and horses can not reproduce. Horses and donkeys can but their mule offspring are sterile.

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

 

[lemondiesel]

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Albert Einstein

 

[Black_Rose]

Depends on what you’re referring to. Randomness of thought, occurrences that bring about certain situations, creation of things and beings, etc.

Personally, I think nothing is random. There has to be a certain sense of order dictated beyond what man has control over. In a way, it’s not supernatural, but natural in the sense that God oversees everything.

What do you mean that nothing is random? What happens during the course of a baseball game, regular season, and postseason can be generalized to real life.

I watch a lot baseball games and am a novice student in sabermetrics, and a lot of outcomes that happens in a baseball game, such as base hits in clutch situations are certainly random as it has been dispelled that “clutch hitting” (or choking) does not exist at the Major League level. In other words, the performance of a hitter in a clutch situation, no matter how clutch is defined whether by runners in scoring position, September/October games, late innings with narrow margins, can be accurately predicted just by relying on his general statistics such as batting average. “It’s f**king luck” as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, puts it when he was talking about “clutch hitting”.

He shoves a wad of tobacco into his upper lip, then turns back to his computer screen, which displays the Amazon.com home page. In his hand he’s got a review he’s ripped out of Time magazine, of a novel called The Dream of Scipio, a thriller with intellectual pretension. He reads the sentence of the review that has made him a buyer: “Civilization had made them men of learning, but in order to save it they must leave their studies and become men of action.” As he taps on his computer keyboard, the television over his head replays Mike Magnante’s home run ball of the night before. The Oakland A’s announcers are trying to explain why the Oakland A’s are still behind the Anaheim Angels and the Seattle Mariners in the division standings. “The main reason this team is trailing in the American League West,” an announcer says, “is that they haven’t hit in the clutch, they haven’t hit with guys in scoring position.” Billy drops the book review, forgets about Amazon, and reaches for the TV remote control. Of the many false beliefs peddled by the TV announcers, this fealty to “clutch hitting” was maybe the most maddening to Billy Beane. “It’s f****** luck,” he says, and faces around the dial until he finds *Moneyline *with Lou Dobbs. He prefers watching money shows to watching baseball anyway.

pervoprohodcy.ru/baseball/book2/html/092.htm

The regular season, with such a large sample size of 162 games, is subjected to less variation and the outcome of the season is most likely to be determined by talent of the team (although team talent is not constant due to trades and the disabled list). Here is one can calculate how much the variance of outcomes (win loss records) in a professional sports league is determined by talent (a combination of a team’s hitting, pitching, position player defense, managerial and coaching, and home attendance) and random variance (luck). (Home attendance has been shown to increase the number of runs scored by the home team by about a run.)

In the MLB postseason, luck is king, because of the small sample size of games and that team talent does not have a large effect on winning percentage (but it does have a measurable effect) in the regular season. Furthermore, the variance in talent is much smaller in the postseason since “bad” and “mediocre” teams are not participants.

Here is Billy Beane when he was discussing the submarine pitcher Chad Bradford and his religious beliefs. I found it hilarious.

That night in early September he’s fighting himself more fiercely than ever before. Billy Beane knows it. His cheap out-getting machine has a programming glitch. He has no idea how to fix it-how to get inside Chad Bradford’s head. Sloth, indolence, a lack of discipline, an insufficient fear of management-these problems Billy knows how to attack. Insecurity is beyond him. If he knew how to solve the problem, he might be finishing up his playing career and preparing himself for election to the Hall of Fame. But he still doesn’t know; and it worries him. Chad doesn’t know that he will retire batters at such a predictable rate, in such a predictable way, that he might as well be a robot. As a result, he might not do it.

Billy Beane only watches all of what happens next because he’s somehow allowed himself to be trapped into watching the game with me. What happens next is that Chad Bradford shows the world how quickly a big lead in baseball can be lost. He gets the final out in the seventh inning, on a ground ball. The eighth inning is the problem. Art Howe allows Chad to return to the mound to face a series of left-handed hitters.

“I’m glad Art’s leaving him in,” says Billy. “He’s wasted if you only use him to get an out.”

I ask if it worries him that Chad relies so heavily on faith. That Chad’s genuine, understandable belief that the Good Lord must be responsible for his fantastic ability to get big league hitters out leaves him open to the suspicion that the Good Lord might have changed His mind.

“No,” says Billy. “**I’m a believer, too. I just happen to believe in the power of the ground ball.” **

pervoprohodcy.ru/baseball/book2/html/123.htm

 

[Joe_Kelley]

In physics all events have causes. However, some times a very small, even undetectable, effect can cause a great difference in the results. We call these events random. We cannot predict the outcome of any specific action, but can give statistics on the outcome of a number of similar events.

At the Science museum in Chicago there is, or was, a display in which a large number of ball bearings were dropped on a rod. Some went left; some right. Slightly lower were rods on each side that the ball going that way hit; it then went right or left; etc. etc. Ultimately they fell into bins at the bottom and form a normal distribution; as would be expected for a series of random events.

However the ultimate destination of each ball was determined by the exact point at which it impacted the first rod. An identical ball hitting that exact same point on the rod would end in the same bin. But even a slight variation in the spot, or the ball, would send the ball elsewhere. The slight difference in the point of impact, the effect of slight imperfections in the curvature of the rod, variations in the surface of the balls, etc make it impossible to predict the trajectory of an individual ball. Hence, a “random” event.

 

[tonyrey]

In physics all events have causes. However, some times a very small, even undetectable, effect can cause a great difference in the results. We call these events random. We cannot predict the outcome of any specific action, but can give statistics on the outcome of a number of similar events.

Physicists disagree on whether** all **events have causes. If the outcome of certain events is unpredictable it is impossible to know for certain whether it is due to our ignorance or not…

 

[inocente]

It isn’t supernatural, is it?

It would only be supernatural if it cannot currently be explained naturally and the proposed supernatural cause is special pleading. In other words, never.

 

[awatkins69]

It isn’t supernatural, is it?

*Everything *is caused supernaturally. The only reason anything exists or happens is because omnipotent God wills it to exist. If God willed that in a few moments everything should stop existing, it would stop existing. Everything falls within divine providence, be it the smallest grain of sand or galaxies.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Physicists disagree on whether** all **events have causes. If the outcome of certain events is unpredictable it is impossible to know for certain whether it is due to our ignorance or not…

This physicist says they all have causes. Otherwise science is bunk.

Unless there is a cause and effect, experiments are non-reproducible and a waste of time.

 

[R_Daneel]

Physicists disagree on whether** all **events have causes.

Cool hand, Luke… Let’s wave buh-bye to the first cause argument.

**Everything **is caused supernaturally. The only reason anything exists or happens is because omnipotent God wills it to exist. If God willed that in a few moments everything should stop existing, it would stop existing. Everything falls within divine providence, be it the smallest grain of sand or galaxies.

Good job. So let’s also wave goodbye to “free will” and embrace God’s evil nature, who “wills” all the rapes, murders and senseless violence.

I guess, there is no good reason for me to post here any more. Tonyrey disposed of the argument for God’s existence, and awatkins69 proved that God is evil. Yippie yay!

Good bye.

 

[tonyrey]

**tonyrey Physicists disagree on whether all **events have causes.

Cool hand, Luke… Let’s wave buh-bye to the first cause argument.
Premature rejoicing on your part, RD! I was not sufficiently precise:

Physicists disagree on whether all **subatomic **events have causes.

 

[Black_Rose]

Cool hand, Luke… Let’s wave buh-bye to the first cause argument.

And Phil Ivey calls.

Ultimately they fell into bins at the bottom and form a normal distribution; as would be expected for a series of random events

The central limit theorem only applies for a collection random variables with a a finite variance. Each of these variables must be independent of each other, with little covariance. The binomial distribution is an example where these conditions do apply, and if the more trials there are, the binomial distribution converges to a normal distribution. The probability distribution of obtaining a number of heads when flipping 200 coins assumes a normal distribution with its mean, mode, and median, and 100 coins and a standard deviation of 5. But if we assume that each coin flip influences a subsequent coin flip, this does not hold. For instance if the covariance among coin flips are one, then the first coin would influence all the coins, and one would have a bimodal distribution of 0 and 200.

 

[Liinus]

In its teaching on God’s Providence, the Church teaches there is no such thing as a random action, or an " accident, " The entire universe and everything in it- including forces, waves, gravity, etc are maintained in existence by the continuous exercise of God’s creative act and directed by Him to its proper end.