CHRIS IN MASSACHUSETTS ASKS:<\/p>\n
Christians and non-Christians alike announce that \u201cthere are no such things as coincidences\u201d (so that e.g. getting a good parking space) is an act of direct divine intervention\u2026. Are all of these coincidences \u201clittle miracles\u201d that God hands out to virtually everyone?<\/p>\n
THE GUY ANSWERS:<\/p>\n
Good theme for the days between Lincoln\u2019s Birthday and the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony where the movie \u201cLincoln\u201d is up for 12 Oscars. Why? Historian Allen Guelzo\u2019s magnificent biography \u201cAbraham Lincoln: Redeemer President\u201d concentrates on the president\u2019s philosophy, not just political but moral and religious. Guelzo says\u00a0Lincoln\u2019s worldview, shaped by a\u00a0hard-shell Baptist upbringing and other unknown factors, included fatalistic belief in some inexorable power \u2014 for him, probably not the conventional God \u2014 that totally controls events the human will is helpless to alter. Presumably that would include the coincidence, defined by Harvard University mathematicians\u00a0Persi Diaconis and Frederick Mosteller as \u201ca surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, with no apparent causal connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take these Lincoln coincidences: \u00a0The only one of the president\u2019s four sons to reach adulthood, Robert, nearly died as well in a Jersey City train platform mishap. He was rescued by celebrated actor Edwin Booth, yes the brother of actor John Wilkes Booth who later assassinated Robert\u2019s father. On the fateful night of that shooting Robert skipped an invitation to join his father at Ford\u2019s Theater, perhaps saving his life a second time, and was at the bedside as his father was dying. In 1881, Robert was at the Washington train station with President Garfield when he was shot. And in 1901 he was in Buffalo en route to meet President McKinley when he was shot. That\u2019s three of history\u2019s four assassinations of U.S. presidents!<\/p>\n
And speaking of presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who worked together on the Declaration of Independence, famously died on the same day, July 4,\u00a0 1826, precisely the 50th anniversary of the original Independence Day. What are the odds? Such strange occurrences earned gazillions for Ripley\u2019s \u201cBelieve It Or Not\u201d media empire.<\/p>\n
But do they stem from God? Seems to The Guy that when such tiny events are beneficial (e.g.\u00a0a parking space) it\u2019s quite harmless, and quite natural, for religious believers to attribute them to God\u2019s aid. But there\u2019s no particular reason to assume that\u2019s the case, and believers\u2019 actual prayer requests usually focus on more important matters \u2014 or ought to.<\/p>\n
Chris\u2019s full posting noted that\u00a0statistics hobbyists Diaconis and Mosteller spent a decade collecting and analyzing thousands of reported coincidences. They concluded that\u00a0some are\u00a0explained by hidden causes or skewed perceptions, but most often they\u2019re matters of sheer chance, easily explained by \u201cthe law of very large numbers,\u201d namely: \u201cWith a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is apt to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back to Lincoln. What really matters in life is not\u00a0everyday trivialities but how God\u2019s providence relates to major life events and world-historical changes. Theologians have long pondered this cosmic question and as a mere newsman The Guy has nothing to add. Lincoln addressed this in his Second Inaugural Address, which seemed to affirm belief in God after a lifetime of skepticism and spiritual struggle. The president sought to comprehend the unbearable injustices of centuries of human slavery and the unimaginable slaughter of the Civil War. Rather like the biblical Book of Job, he\u00a0provided no snap answer but concluded that \u201cthe Almighty has His own purposes\u201d and \u201cit must be said \u2018the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n