coincidence

The big bang did not create Earth.

It created the force that created Earth, that same force that expands forever onwards now, infinitely, as I sit here in my highly unlikely space and time.  Stephen Hawking wrote, “the odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like a big bang are enormous. I think there are religious implications whenever you start to discuss the origins of the universe.”

Scientists have calculated that several conditions vital for life needed to be fine-tuned to a razor’s edge. Without this precise fine-tuning, our universe wouldn’t exist, let alone support life. It’s nothing short of a miracle that we exist at all.

Is it all just a coincidence, or is there some divine intelligence at the wheel? Emma Bull argued the coincidence was just the word we used when we “can’t see the levers and the pulleys.” Are the words coincidence and god interchangeable?

Coincidence does seem to be the glue that binds the significant to the insignificant; we give credit to god, but coincidence really is the only reason there is a human species. We are all a bi-product of serendipity. Our destinies were begat by happenchance.

Of course, there are many kinds of coincidences. There are the staggeringly normal kind, like spotting someone wearing the same pair of shoes as you, or hearing your ring tone on another person’s phone. Then there are the eerie kind of coincidences, like thinking about someone and then bumping into them three minutes later, telepathy in general or déjà vu. And then there are the truly important coincidences, like the fact there is a universe at all, that everyone takes for granted.

Considering this, I have often thought to myself that if it were not for coincidence, absolutely nothing significant would have happened at all. Yet, often coincidence is treated as an irrelevance to most peoples’ lives. Serendipities calling receives’ about as much reverence as a Jehovah’s Witness on a Monday morning. How many times have you heard a fantastic story that ended with the line “or it could all just be a massive coincidence?” What else is there?

Whenever there is a story ending “and we believe this is the work of god,” without a doubt there will be a round of “praise the lord!” or “pull the other one!”

 But what is the difference? Is coincidence not just gods way of working mysteriously? Or vice versa?

Surviving war (or any other severely life threatening situation) is as much to do with coincidence as courage. There are many courageous men and women killed in battle. It is the “lucky” few that survive to tell the ghoulish tales.

You may argue that you make your own luck in this world, but nothing accounts for the many stories that tell of people who, being the only one to survive a horrific event, had no idea whatsoever how or why they were still alive. They were not the fittest, or the smartest or the most religious; they were just the safest at that time. The universe somehow conspired to keep them breathing.

Why? People usually like to consider those who are lucky as deserving of it. Nothing sticks in the throat more than a bastard doing well; especially when those we judge to be “good people” suffer. So what is luck? And how did it become the right of the virtuous (alone) to deserve? How are some people lucky, and some aren’t? 

It is estimated that your chances of picking six winning numbers in the UK lottery are approx 1 in 14 million (although I prefer my mother’s take on this when she says odds are 50/50, your either going to win or your not).  Yet people win.  (Although being lucky and being rich are not necessarily synonymous, try telling that to some people.)

Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology Carl Jung was the first to coin the term synchronicity, the experience of two or more events that are highly unlikely to occur together by chance, which are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner.

In short, his theories maintain that as events may be grouped together by cause, we also group them together through meaning. Without us to add meaning to this life, or quest for the purpose, would there be any at all? Are humans really the only creatures alive that want to know what it’s all about?

What I find really interesting is that without our giving it meaning/context, coincidence would just be a string of meaningless, random events in space/time. Without our giving it meaning, could the same be said of god? It may be very unromantic (any less terrifying?) to consider that there is not a divine plan/father/intelligence looking after and mapping out every single detail of our life, but does this make it any less true?

There are millions upon millions of people all over the world that dip into daily and weekly astrology columns to see what the stars/destiny have in store for them. I personally have always thought that it is highly unlikely that Saturn (or any of the other planets for that matter) movements in the hemisphere is really going to cause traffic jams on the way to work, effect my bosses mood and mean my lucky number is nine for the day.

However the interesting thing about those who do subscribe to these ideas is that really, they are putting their faith in coincidence. The universe was not designed in twelve houses or with only twelve personality types in mind. Any resemblance of proof (at all) to the position of Mercury affecting the speed in which a parcel can be delivered is purely coincidental (in my opinion).  

But astrology does demonstrate how seriously some people do take the impact of the coincidences in their life, no matter if by definition, a coincidence is impossible to predict. Any effort to define such random chance must be vague and none descript to ever stand a chance to be considered accurate.

To say everyone born in this world between 22^nd July – 22^nd August is a natural extrovert who favours the colour gold takes prizes for generalisation; yet it is incredible how many are “spooked” by the character profiling inherent in the system.

Jung observed the human psyche as ‘by nature religious’. His pioneering work into the understanding of archetypes (as generic universal personalities or patterns of behaviour) go some way into explaining why people do read so much into their horoscopes.

No one is born knowing they are Leo. It is something they discover, and then often, read into to find meaning, reason or deeper understanding to their lives. As Jung said: “It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.” If all born in the sign of Cancer are defined as jealous, and you are jealous by nature, there is a perfect syllogism here to reinforce the behaviour and the belief that this behaviour defines you. In a way, it is a perfect model for using your ideals as your excuses.

We see what we want to see, and take control of what we want to control. According to Jung we all “follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be our own.”

Whichever is the way of things, whether it is god or coincidence we have to thank, we are here.

That is enough to be grateful for.