Do you believe in luck

I was thinking about this yesterday, apart from Immigration and meeting my girlfreind , my luck has been absolutely horrendous this last few years.
Then the other day a buddy wins a laptop on a coffee (roll up the rim from Tim Hortons)

So I started thinking about luck.

I know many people don't believe in luck and think we simply make our own way in life.
Well I think about it and realise I've never been one for winning anything without skill involved, I've never won more than $50 on the lottery.
Almost everything I buy electronically goes wrong or takes forever to get to me. My cars develope problems that mechanics say "It's pretty rare but it happens" etc etc etc.

Then I look at other people who have several wins on the lotto and buy cars that simply run for years and buy something, have it delivered and end up by mistake getting the better model etc etc.

So, personally I think luck does exist, good luck, bad luck, winning and losing streaks.

In a TV show called Red Dwarf , they created a storyline that says Luck is a virus and is combatted by your immune system, this is quite an interesting idea since it makes perfect sense as to why luck only seems to last a short while, similar to a cold or flu.

I also think luck is attached to different people, like I have pretty bad luck or no luck.
Others have good luck and others seem to have zero good or bad luck.

Just wondered what you guys think.

Obviously bare in mind this is a 100% opinion thread since there is no proof either way lol

 

WTF is good luck? Ain't had any for years. In fact, if at all. Most I've ever won is £95 on the horses about 25 years ago. Rest of the luck I got is pi$$ poor.....
Seriously, I believe 'luck' is just a circumstance people find themselves in at a certain point in their lives and 'luck' is attributed to so many things that it's become a given to call someone lucky if they win something. IMO luck is no more than a way of explaining a situation that happens to be advantageous in some way to a certain individual. It don't exist. But money does go to money. Fact.

Don't call me tetchy.....

 

I know exactly what you mean. I always say if I ever win anything it's got to be BIG to make up for me winning nothing, ever. On the other hand my ex-husband lucked out at everything he tried, with some requiring no skill of any kind.
So yeah.

 

:-D:-D:-D

Buck Owens & Roy Clark


Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

We figured she was rich, loaded to the hilt
And we figured she had class like the Vanderbilts
'Cause we had heard for years how she was so well reared
How was we to know they meant the way she was built

Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

 

Cuz Buck lived in the same crappy town as I do now. Armpit, Ca

 

I don't think anyone is more prone to good luck over anyone else. All those things that you say never happen to you, well, that's because things like that rarely happen to anyone. just looks worse when it's someone you know.

been getting my coffee there every morning since the contest started, and all i have to show for it is a free coffee. hmph...lucky i guess. could be worse. :cool

 

Are you being serious?You think people have luck?All the physical laws in the universe are bent and broken so someone can win a laptop?That's what it implies,I thinks that's silly.

Luckiness is also relative,a 10 year old girl breaking bricks for 12 hours a day in Sudan to earn 12p to feed her 5 sick family members would think your pretty lucky.

The main problem with people who gamble a lot is they only boast about their wins,they never say they've pumped £50 into machine and not won anything,it gives the illusion they are winning.

 

Not necessarily gamble or even participating. There are some people for what ever reason things come to, happen for, without even trying, without even being present. I've seen it first hand.

 

So your saying stuff happens to people?

Agreed :-D

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0VAO5tYH4

I agree with Dr. Manhattan. :-D

 

What Tim? roflmao!!!!

 

What Tim?:confused roflmao!!!! You get that from some infommercial?:-D

Ahh, must be that Dennis Trudeau jerk!

 

roflmao Oh I can always win a bet if I bet that you will come up with a logical solution, MG's very own Mr.Spock.

It's all opinion as I said but I would answer what you said with a clarification of the opinion asked ,worded pretty much how Darlene worded it.

Science is always evolving and has yet to understand the forces and laws that we have come to call "Luck"
Science may one day prove that luck really is actually "Luck" as we know it.
Things can always change, especially when we know nothing about anything we havn't yet figured out :-D

But thanks dude, I was looking forward to your reply, always refreshing

@Tim... What? lol

 

Yeah, pretty much :-D

 

I believe we create our own Luck tho I do admit that there are things you can't control and that's what destiny is.

 

I really, really, really need to visit this fantastic town of yours before I die, D :cool A pilgrimage to the nastiest place on earth. Apart from Manchester :-D

 

Oi..I resemble that remark

 

I don't believe in luck - good or bad.

 

Well, Gil, how much you interpret my dislike of Manchester depends on which side of the city you support. Red or blue. Blue is good Manchester, I like blue. Neither is fine, too. Red is enormously disappointing. In keeping with the subject matter, the luckiest team in Europe. Shanchester, if you will
Haway the Mags!!

 

Probability and chance are two ideas science firmly has a grasp on as is the psychology behind why people gamble,that's why most intelligent people who know this don't gamble,Las Vegas is built on the backs of people who don't understand this.

Luck is an illusion I'll give an example; Nedlamar and Darlene both roll the dice Darlene,Darlene throws 5 sixes in a row,Nedlamar throws a mixture of low numbers.Now you have to pick one of them to roll a six or one of your family members will be murdered,who do you choose? "Yeah you have to choose one,no you don't have any superpowers to save them,its my game shutup,Tim and Augie can bite me just incase" :-D

Nedlamar hasn't rolled a six so you would imagine the chances of him rolling one are good but Darlene has rolled 5 in a row so she's is said to be "lucky".

You have a 1/6 chance of saving your family member your scared you have to pick one so you pick one of the above for one of the above reasons.

It doesn't matter which you choose or for what reason you've just become a victim of one of oldest principles of math,probability and psychology,well not oldest by far but over a century.

Nedlamar if you can explain what principle I'm talking about and why you don't believe in it as you stated in this thread I'll concede.

I like your threads too,they allow to re-examine and confirm what I already know:-D

I believe in Karma,Darwin invented it to thin out the numbers.

 

Awesome! :-D

I know I can't win an argument of logic with you...... but I'll try :-D

The way I look at luck has nothing to do with math.

The probabilities you speak of are not fact. They are probable, not certain.
Darlene could roll 5000 6's in a row, odds are against it but it's not impossible.

The luck I speak of is more along the lines of total random things.
The other day I dropped a glass while washing up, this glass is thin and tall, very fragile. I dropped it , went to grab it and hit it, it flew across the table and hit a loaf of bread, landing safely.
That was lucky, how would you put that into mathmatical odds?

Driving along in snow, a deer runs out in front of me, milliseconds before I saw the deer I skidded slightly to the right, I missed the deer by 4 or 5 feet 100% due to the skid, had I not have skidded I would have hit the deer.
Again, I considered that lucky, how would you put that into mathmatical odds?

See what I mean? Odds are fine but there's unexplained things that happen that just seem like someone or something reached in and helped you out.
Lady Luck.

By the way, thanks for making me lose the dice game :-D

Edit: The gambling thing, I don't gamble, I do the lotto once in a while. But I only play fruit machines for fun, these machines have nothing to do with odds as such, they are set to pay out every so many spins or after taking a certain amount of money, I've owned a few and have known several arcade owners (comming from a seaside resort thats not uncommon lol) and I have set the win levels on some myself. This isn't true of all machines, but most modern ones are.

 

Of course the odds are not in favour of Darlene and could happen once in 30B years but as some might know here, there is a bell curve of probabilities. I mean that's how insurance companies rate people's deaths and how much people should pay in premiums.

As long as one gets it mostly right is all that anyone cares about. Casinos and life insurance companies never lose money on their aggregate bets.

 

Well what you were speaking of previously regarding some people seeming to be lucky with regard to winning is related to a principle known as gamblers fallacy,that's what I was trying to express with the die example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy

Random events being perceived as lucky is also related to fallacy but its a little different,this aspect is related to superstition and psychology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck#Luck_as_a_fallacy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck

Your doing that thing again Nedlamar saying because science doesn't know everything what you say could be true with regard to luck being contagious ect. ect.,we've been through this,you can't do that it doesn't make any sense.

I'll post it again,I hope you'll at least attempt to read it this time;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

 

Yup Tim, it would certainly be interesting but then it wouldn't be karma, not in the truest sense of the word. If anyone believes in that then we are two of the worst offenders in our previous lives!roflmao

 

Well, then you're a rock solid pre-destinator as you would think that nothing you could do that would help you out of your situation.

It is Karma because one can work against the pre-ordained karma from the previous life and get a better spot in life next time around. I found this to be quite a decent primer on Bhuddism. I don't think karma is a death spell that one should resign to but something to overcome. I think we all have something to overcome in our lives eh? If not physically then in our own heads.:major

 

There is evidence that points toward predestination in a chaotic system,in any chaotic system similar patterns evolve that match each other regardless of the initial values put into a system,they are seen everywhere in nature.

It does pose the question if the universe were tiny bit different would humans exist?If you build a chaotic universe do they always end up the same given enough time?

Physicists say the universe is infinitely impossible,the odds of the universe being here are so small,the cosmic constant has to be so precise for the universe to exist it wouldn't happen.

Scientist don't like the word god but this is what it implies that an outside force had to interfere to guide everything to where it should be or we wouldn't exist,call it Karma,god,predestination ect. ect. so they came up with the multi-verse theory which says that there are an infinite number of universes and ours just got 'lucky' being the way it is.

But there's a problem:-D If your sharp you'll have noticed it as I've already posted the problem,this theory suffers from gamblers fallacy,just because there are lots of universes doesn't increase the likely hood of ours being 'tuned' the way it is.

So I guess you just go for the one you like,all universes end up like this due to patterns in chaos or there are lots of universes and ours is just one.

There are lots of other theories aswell of course.

 

I believe that 100%

 

Don't try to bend the spoon with your mind,instead just try to realise the truth.

There is no spoon

:cool

 

I understand the theory it doesn't mean I agree with it:-D In the theory are you saying that if someone becomes enlightened they can bend or break the physical laws of the universe like in the movie The Matrix?

If so I think that's sci-fi and I disagree with it,I don't think its true.

 

And I wasn't inferring you said I thought I believed it.:-D

No thanks I think they are all street tricks,there's never been a confirmed case of a holy man performing a miracle under scientific control they are all tricks performed on a small number of people who then through Chinese whispers turn in Grandiose tales.

Well that's what I think.

I've been knocked for six actually,I'm surprised you believe in stuff like that,consider yourself blocked :-D

 

I do love you but the universe has other ideas,my need for an emotionless state of pure logical nihilism is just too strong.

Lets not say goodbye,lets say au revoir :cry:cry:cry

:-D

Oh yeah to Nedlamar,I think I came across as an arrogant condescending jerk in my last post to you post 25,I'm sorry about that frustration got the better of me

 

lol no worries, I found it all quite interesting.
I knew you'd come up with all that, but I'm far to pig headed to change my opinion

Luck rules the universe... :hyper

:-D

 

Returning ever so slightly to the topic...
One needs to first decide what one means by 'luck'. One could mean it as the cause of 'good' or 'bad' things that happen to people - more to some than to others, or one could understand it as a descriptive term used to describe what is observed to happen to people, with no causal component at all. I think it is derived from the latter, but is then used as the former...
If a number of good things happen to a person, we rightly call them 'lucky' - describing their situation, but then we expect that they are likely to continue to experience more good things because of this. Has this ever been scientifically tested? I know not. And as someone said to me just yesterday, 'Absence of proof is not proof of absence'.
However, as for me, I happen to believe in a creator God who positively influences the lives of those who ask Him to, and I believe there is an evil being who is the enemy of God and who negatively influences both the lives of those who allow him to and the universe in general.

 

Luck? In my experience there is no such thing as "luck". :innocent

 

Hi Mimsy.
I guess you mean luck in the sense of something that causes things to happen? I don't believe in that either. But I'm happy to say that someone is lucky or unlucky if they have more good or bad things happening than average, simply as a description of their experiences.

 

Yeah it has been scientifically tested repeatedly and people who are said to be lucky score the same as other volunteers in chance test scenario.

Randi commonly debunks people who have said they are lucky or believe they can alter the outcome in chance situations,the last time I checked there was a guy who said he could influence the cards he was dealt so they will test him under scientific observation to see if he can,this was a while ago though so they may have already tested him.They were very lenient in the test too he didn't have to get every card right all he had to do was show a higher percentage of good cards when compared to a couple of control groups so it is very winnable if you actually have power over chance or are lucky.

To date no one has claimed the prize,no one has even got through the preliminary tests where they hold an informal showing to see if the claim to paranormal behaviour warrants further testing,everyone who has tried has been shown to be delusional:-D

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

Timw...

 

Er... I was just quoting a good movie... :confused

 

Circumstances that are beyond our control and/or without our fore-knowledge can be to our advantage or against our wishes/desires. That these events occur is a matter of fact. Whether it is 'good or bad luck' is a matter of personal view and interpretation.~ Not scientific, but may or may not be, rational thought. Science explains much about ourselves and our Universe(s). But when it comes to bare basic questions about our Universe, our existence and the human condition, the bounds of Science, Philosophy and Theology become increasingly blurred, (as it inevitably has to, for so-called ultimate truths, i.m.h.o.).

Luckily, I don't believe in luck.LOL

 

Of course! Obi-Wan!
(Thinks: I hope Mimsy doesn't ask me if I had to Google to find that out...')

:-D Like it!

 

It's okay. The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded. :major