Luck

[SalixIncendium]

I define luck as one's personal success or failure brought forth by chance in lieu of one's own actions. My definition will be used or the purposes of this thread.

Are you a believer in luck? Do you believe that chance has a greater influence on your life than your actions? Why or why not?

 

[Sunstone]

Interesting question, Scott. It seems to me that chance has a much greater influence on personal outcomes than most of us are able to emotionally accept. If you make the arduous effort to look at life dispassionately for a few minutes, it seems clear enough that much of what happens, happens in a more or less chance fashion.

But I think most of us are far from emotionally comfortable with that idea. It implies life is not secure, not safe, and that is a thought or feeling that humans instinctively fear and hate. Just look at everything we do -- every length we go to -- to feel secure. People make huge sacrifices to feel secure, and rationalize those sacrifices in such ways they come to believe they are both good and necessary.

Chance, to my mind, is a significant to major factor in most of life's outcomes. But I'm not always very happy with that. In fact, despite believing chance routinely impacts us, I spend considerable time in daily denial that it plays much more than a rare and unusual role at all. It's psychologically very hard to allow oneself to grasp how insecure life really is.

By the way, I find another useful way to distinguish between luck and chance is to define chance as random, and luck as the notion that one in someway is personally favored or disfavored by chance. But I suspect that to use that definition here would amount to changing the subject of the thread -- unless it were used carefully. The reason I bring it up is because I believe that a whole lot of us believe in luck -- believe chance personally favors or disfavors us -- and that that belief amounts to a denial of chance, a way of feeling secure in a chancy world.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

I define luck as one's personal success or failure brought forth by chance in lieu of one's own actions. My definition will be used or the purposes of this thread.

Are you a believer in luck? Do you believe that chance has a greater influence on your life than your actions? Why or why not?

Oddly I do sometimes believe in luck. There are sets of coincidences that have occurred over the course of my lifetime that seem statistically improbable and for which I am very thankful.
Now, do I believe that luck has greater influence than my own actions? No.
If I step out into the woods and laid down, then I’ll likely freeze to death before some lucky coincidence comes along and makes my life better. Or if I quit my job and spend my last few dollars playing the lottery, I don’t believe that I will hit the jackpot.

 

[Salvador]

I define luck as one's personal success or failure brought forth by chance in lieu of one's own actions. My definition will be used or the purposes of this thread.

Are you a believer in luck? Do you believe that chance has a greater influence on your life than your actions? Why or why not?

Luck, n. Success or failure brought by chance rather than one's own actions.

In the gaming world, a bit of luck is more valuable than an ounce of gold.

 

[Axe Elf]

I don't think we have free will, and I don't think anything happens by chance (I believe God is in control of everything), so I'm probably not the best person to ask.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

The Germanic concept of luck was called hamingja. It was apparently seen as both an entity and an abstract concept. It could be inherited through family and even loaned out for a time.

I think this article explains it well enough:
Hamingja – The Embodiment of Luck | The Pagan Princesses

I'm still learning about it.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I define luck as one's personal success or failure brought forth by chance in lieu of one's own actions. My definition will be used or the purposes of this thread.

Are you a believer in luck? Do you believe that chance has a greater influence on your life than your actions? Why or why not?

Chance always have influence over our lives than actions. I would say it's ego-tistic to say we have full control over chance or luck. We live in a "lucky" world; just, since it's without origin, there is a tendency to put meaning to luck so that it makes sense to a person.

I believe in luck. I choose to attribute them to spiritual causes. By doing so, helps me be more grateful for all the good-luck I have had.

 

[Salvador]

I don't think we have free will, and I don't think anything happens by chance (I believe God is in control of everything), so I'm probably not the best person to ask.

I believe everybody has limited free will, albeit a poor sick person's free will is less extensive than a well-to-do healthy person's free-will. If there is zero free-will, then we'd be like programmed machines. Do you believe that's all we are?

 

[Brickjectivity]

Luck is as unreliable as it is real. Its real but not reliable. I would describe it as a kind of inertia. Things tend to keep happening the same way, but sometimes they don't.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

@Sunstone Guess we were thinking the same thing with our our likes?

By chance?

 

[Revoltingest]

I define luck as one's personal success or failure brought forth by chance in lieu of one's own actions. My definition will be used or the purposes of this thread.

Are you a believer in luck? Do you believe that chance has a greater influence on your life than your actions? Why or why not?

Revoltifarianism's Pamphlet Of Original Parables (POOP)
embraces something said by Louis Pasteur....
"Chance favors the prepared mind."

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Oddly I do sometimes believe in luck. There are sets of coincidences that have occurred over the course of my lifetime that seem statistically improbable and for which I am very thankful.
Now, do I believe that luck has greater influence than my own actions? No.
If I step out into the woods and laid down, then I’ll likely freeze to death before some lucky coincidence comes along and makes my life better. Or if I quit my job and spend my last few dollars playing the lottery, I don’t believe that I will hit the jackpot.

But you might catch a cold if you slept in the cold or find a penny on the way to your car. Chance comes in many forms, my son. Is it a value to be aware of each and every one or just look towards the big ones.

 

[Sunstone]

@Sunstone Guess we were thinking the same thing with our our likes?

By chance?

In the end, who really knows?

 

[Axe Elf]

I believe everybody has limited free will, albeit a poor sick person's free will is less extensive than a well-to-do healthy person's free-will. If there is zero free-will, then we'd be like programmed machines. Do you believe that's all we are?

That's not ALL we are, because programmed machines are not sentient. But I believe our actions are all predestined, yes.

 

[Jollybear]

I define luck as one's personal success or failure brought forth by chance in lieu of one's own actions. My definition will be used or the purposes of this thread.

Are you a believer in luck? Do you believe that chance has a greater influence on your life than your actions? Why or why not?

I think luck or chance is an illusion. I understand how some percieve it to exist.

But, i think the reality is that factors, causes and actions exist.

All that combined create ones destiny.

 

[Jollybear]

That's not ALL we are, because programmed machines are not sentient. But I believe our actions are all predestined, yes.

In other threads youv said im not rational, so did God predistine me to be "irrational"?

Is God controlling that and causing that?

 

[Salvador]

That's not ALL we are, because programmed machines are not sentient. But I believe our actions are all predestined, yes.

If I may please ask, predestined by whom or what? Was I predestine to ask or did I have the choice to ask?

 

[Axe Elf]

In other threads youv said im not rational, so did God predistine me to be "irrational"?

Is God controlling that and causing that?

Yes.

 

[Axe Elf]

If I may please ask, predestined by whom or what? Was I predestine to ask or did I have the choice to ask?

By God.

You were predestined to ask.

 

[Jollybear]

Yes.

Now thats interesting.

Next question: why did God predistine me to be "irrational"?