Atheism and "luck"

I have a dear friend who is an athiest and last night we got in a discussion about "luck". I was pretty much just playing devil's advocate, but my stance was as an Athiest you can't believe in luck because luck is a sort of "higher power" - it's an outside force.

She said, "But you can make your own luck". I agree with the sentiment behind the statement, but I don't think that's really "luck" as much as putting yourself in postive (or negative) positions for good (or bad) things to happen.

Thoughts?

 

Y'all have different definitions of "luck", pretty much like you pointed out. Traditionally, luck is sort of a supernatural force that makes positive things happen when they shouldn't. But she's defining luck as whenever good things happen. By her definition, she's right -- people can position themselves and prepare so that more good things will happen to them.

Just kind of an apples and oranges thing.

 

I'm not an atheist, but I did sip Starbucks with some pseudo intellectuals 2.6 months ago...

I think most atheists would define luck as a sustained random string of positives, with no driving force behind it. That said, there's also the quote that "luck" is merely the intersection of opportunity and preparation. That is, to say, the creators are definite and human.

 

So you're saying that if someone gets lucky and wins the lottery that God made it happen?


I have never thought of it that way.

 

luck is one thing, but something being lucky is another. i think an atheist having a lucky charm of some variety would be pretty f'ing odd, tho atheists, i suppose, aren't necessarily atheists for purely logical reasons.

i'm a borderline atheist and i don't believe items convey any sort of luckiness. however, i do believe in karma -- or at least, some version of it. but i believe that goes along the lines of that making your own luck thing somebody already mentioned.

 

that's what she believed. I used that exact example and she then saw my point of view - that "luck" and "position/opportunity" were two different things.

That being said, she still believes in luck (of the lottery variety) and doesnt see that it affects her athiesm.

 

but karma is a VERY religious concept - I dont see how it can coexist with athiesm.

That being said, I'm not an athiest, so perhaps I'm just ignorant.

 

I believe that if you win the lottery or a randon drawing of some type that you are lucky or you got lucky and that God didn't have anything to do with that luck. It's more of a word to describe something that we can all understand. If something fortuitous happens to you because of a randon event then you were lucky.

I am not an atheist but I am agnostic. I don't believe that there is a god or that there are gods. I also don't believe that it will ever be proven one way or the other. To be honest I don't care enough about it to argue one way or the other about it either.

 

Unless some of y'all are on board with the concept of God making sure I win certain bets, I'd be REAL careful about tying that luck thing directly to God.

 

exactly. that's what i was trying to get at with my lucky charm thing. an event can be described as lucky and it really doesn't mean anything more than a random event of low probability with a beneficial outcome.

but the other idea of luck is that items or rituals affect the probability of things beyond your control (wearing your lucky shirt the day you buy your lotto ticket, for example). i don't believe that.