Nothing happens by accident

[Yehuda_Dion]

Do you believe this, and if so, why? To me, it comes across as a natural consequence of God’s qualities of omniscience and omnipotence. We accept a God that never sleeps, that by His power can look everywhere at once, and whose power is unlimited that Jesus, the Son of God, says nothing is impossible to Him. Also, since all the elect (by definition, all who can love - Gospel of John) are given guardian angels who are given the privilege of directly petitioning God, I believe that nothing happens to anyone on this Earth by accident. If you share this belief, what are your main reasons for believing it?

 

[fred_conty]

It depends on whether we look at it from God’s point of view or from our point of view.

From God’s, nothing every happens that is not foreseeable, and therefore nothing is ever an
accident.

From our’s, yes because we are caught by surprise since we don’t know everything.

Just a thought.

 

[Yehuda_Dion]

It depends on whether we look at it from God’s point of view or from our point of view.

From God’s, nothing every happens that is not foreseeable, and therefore nothing is ever an
accident.

Very true!

 

[AlanFromWichita]

It depends on whether we look at it from God’s point of view or from our point of view.

From God’s, nothing every happens that is not foreseeable, and therefore nothing is ever an
accident.

From our’s, yes because we are caught by surprise since we don’t know everything.

Just a thought.

I’m with you, too. To us, it only has to be “complicated enough” to seem random or by chance. God isn’t bound by time and space as we know it, so the whole idea of “knowing” what might happen from God’s point of view may not even be a valid question. I cringe a little to even say God “knows” something, because when I “know” something I feel a certain way with my carnal mind about it, and I don’t have any idea whether that is part of the image of God, or of my humanness from which I speak.

Alan

 

[someperson555]

i dont believe it. I think only certain things happen for a reason. if for example i go out for a walk and stumble on a piece of wood, thats plain coincidence. unless you count the fact that it was blown there by wind after it fell off a tree, but thats being too literal.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

i dont believe it. I think only certain things happen for a reason. if for example i go out for a walk and stumble on a piece of wood, thats plain coincidence. unless you count the fact that it was blown there by wind after it fell off a tree, but thats being too literal.

It’s all literal. The word “coincidence” defies a “literal” meaning that I’ve seen people agree upon. Do multiple things happen at the same time? Yes? That is literally a coincidence. Do they happen because God orchestrates all of it? I think that’s the real question. If the wood was blown off a tree, did God allow it? Cause it? I don’t know if we can ever settle the “causality” issue with God … if for no other reason God is not bound by space and time. God could watch you walk down the street and then think, “oh wouldn’t it be fun if someperson stumbled,” and go back three minutes in time and try playing it out that way. Of course it could all be in His “mind” but that wouldn’t make it any less real to us.

It might help to quit thinking of ourselves as the “greatest beings” on the planet. I wish I could find it to post, but there was a Far Side comic once where a couple kids and a magnifying glass were over an anthill and one of the ants said, “Hey! All of a sudden I’m starting to feel a little warm, too!”

Alan

 

[The_Reginator]

A while ago I found my long-held belief that there is no such thing as ‘coincidence’ backed up in a great little book: Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence

GOD CONTROLS ALL EVENTS, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD

Nothing happens in the the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must he taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. ‘Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives’ is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, ‘and God intervenes everywhere.’

My belief began after reading in the bible:

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. (Matthew 10)

In university we discussed this matter a lot and it became a core belief.

Alan, we ARE the “greatest beings on the planet”. That is a core Catholic belief – God become a human being of all things. God only created us in His image. We must never forget human exceptionalism. To do so belittles God and His creation.

• Reg.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

In university we discussed this matter a lot and it became a core belief.

I tend to agree with your conclusion.

Alan, we ARE the “greatest beings on the planet”. That is a core Catholic belief – God become a human being of all things. God only created us in His image. We must never forget human exceptionalism. To do so belittles God and His creation.

Oh, ok. I’ll accept your point, and try to clarify what I was getting at. I’m not sure but that my point may reinforce yours.

Maybe I should have said, “keep in mind our mortal limitations,” in trying to discover this. For example, if I buy a scratch-off lottery ticket that pays $20, it’s no accident at all. That ticket was printed in a factory and delivered with the rest, and when it came time for me in line to buy one, it was a double-blind experiment where neither the clerk selling nor I knew what it was. From an operational standpoint, to the clerk and me it was totally “out of the blue” that it won, whereas God knew and consented to each and every action that brought that ticket to me before the tickets were even printed.

Another thing that happens in science all the time is that we will discover a cause or influence over things we didn’t know about, thus understanding something we use to just chalk up to “fate” or whatever. For example, the tides. Somebody had to be the first one to say, “hey the tides seem to follow the position of the moon … how can that be,” and for that matter, “the moon has a gravitational field.”

Seems to me, string theory could easily be a binding concept that IMO could even be used (by those so willing) to help “marry” science and religion. They have calculated out to what, 7 dimensions beyond our own imaginations thus far? I think they are just seeing how far out they can try to predict behavior that isn’t understandable with simpler observations. In fact, I even think this could be a key to peace among honest scientists and open-minded God-believers. Actually I think it’s almost “quaint” that they are only up to 11 dimensions, but I assume that’s all just a math structure because in God’s “reality,” if such a concept exists, I doubt the number of dimensions is even countable. We start somewhere, though … like after Newton and before Einstein, Bohr, and others, we had some pretty good models to allow us to build some things that work pretty well, such as tall buildings and trains.

Alan

 

[BluesPicker]

I tend to agree with your conclusion.

Oh, ok. I’ll accept your point, and try to clarify what I was getting at. I’m not sure but that my point may reinforce yours.

Maybe I should have said, “keep in mind our mortal limitations,” in trying to discover this. For example, if I buy a scratch-off lottery ticket that pays $20, it’s no accident at all. That ticket was printed in a factory and delivered with the rest, and when it came time for me in line to buy one, it was a double-blind experiment where neither the clerk selling nor I knew what it was. From an operational standpoint, to the clerk and me it was totally “out of the blue” that it won, whereas God knew and consented to each and every action that brought that ticket to me before the tickets were even printed.

Another thing that happens in science all the time is that we will discover a cause or influence over things we didn’t know about, thus understanding something we use to just chalk up to “fate” or whatever. For example, the tides. Somebody had to be the first one to say, “hey the tides seem to follow the position of the moon … how can that be,” and for that matter, “the moon has a gravitational field.”

Seems to me, string theory could easily be a binding concept that IMO could even be used (by those so willing) to help “marry” science and religion. They have calculated out to what, 7 dimensions beyond our own imaginations thus far? I think they are just seeing how far out they can try to predict behavior that isn’t understandable with simpler observations. In fact, I even think this could be a key to peace among honest scientists and open-minded God-believers. Actually I think it’s almost “quaint” that they are only up to 11 dimensions, but I assume that’s all just a math structure because in God’s “reality,” if such a concept exists, I doubt the number of dimensions is even countable. We start somewhere, though … like after Newton and before Einstein, Bohr, and others, we had some pretty good models to allow us to build some things that work pretty well, such as tall buildings and trains.

Alan

 Alan,  this is one of  the best posts  I have read.  In a sense, it is about "luck."  We know that God allows bad things to happen as trials through secondary causes, the devil included.  Good things are Blessings from God.

Thanks,
BP

 

[someperson555]

I tend to agree with your conclusion.

Oh, ok. I’ll accept your point, and try to clarify what I was getting at. I’m not sure but that my point may reinforce yours.

Maybe I should have said, “keep in mind our mortal limitations,” in trying to discover this. For example, if I buy a scratch-off lottery ticket that pays $20, it’s no accident at all. That ticket was printed in a factory and delivered with the rest, and when it came time for me in line to buy one, it was a double-blind experiment where neither the clerk selling nor I knew what it was. From an operational standpoint, to the clerk and me it was totally “out of the blue” that it won, whereas God knew and consented to each and every action that brought that ticket to me before the tickets were even printed.

Another thing that happens in science all the time is that we will discover a cause or influence over things we didn’t know about, thus understanding something we use to just chalk up to “fate” or whatever. For example, the tides. Somebody had to be the first one to say, “hey the tides seem to follow the position of the moon … how can that be,” and for that matter, “the moon has a gravitational field.”

Seems to me, string theory could easily be a binding concept that IMO could even be used (by those so willing) to help “marry” science and religion. They have calculated out to what, 7 dimensions beyond our own imaginations thus far? I think they are just seeing how far out they can try to predict behavior that isn’t understandable with simpler observations. In fact, I even think this could be a key to peace among honest scientists and open-minded God-believers. Actually I think it’s almost “quaint” that they are only up to 11 dimensions, but I assume that’s all just a math structure because in God’s “reality,” if such a concept exists, I doubt the number of dimensions is even countable. We start somewhere, though … like after Newton and before Einstein, Bohr, and others, we had some pretty good models to allow us to build some things that work pretty well, such as tall buildings and trains.

Alan