Boro Nut

How common is the name Hoover? I know in America you had a famous transvestite and a large dam of that name, but in the UK it is pretty scarce. What are the chances then that a man named Hoover invented the vacuum cleaner? Or that somone called Celcius discovered degrees? In fact, there are loads of such coincidences if you think about it. Surely these point to the controlling hand of god, and show that he’s capable of having a laugh doesn't it?

Boro Nut

Non-praying Mantis

Is there supposed to be some point to this post??

If vacuum cleaners were invented by a man named Grebnitz, then "Grebnitzing" would mean cleaning your rug. If the president at the time of construction of the dam was Bush (whichever one you want - or don't want!) then we'd have the Bush Dam. Go figure. Please.

NPM

MadMordigan

ROTFLMFAO Boro.

Good form as always!

Jayhawker Soule

I think (hope) Boro Nut was being facetious.

{ as in <a href="http://members.tripod.com/~boro_away_day_news/brown3.htm" target="_blank">Boro Fans and Nigel’s Nut Emporium</a> }

Godless Sodomite

Yes. Another coincidence that points to the hand of god is that cities arose near all major railway stops. What are the odds of that happening? I mean, if things were left to random chance, people would have to walk too far to catch the train and nobody would get to work on time. Yes, it's a good thing that god put cities near the train stations.

-Jerry

Pomp

Not only that, but have you ever noticed that rivers always seem to run bright under bridges, never a bit to the left or to the right? Eerie stuff, if you ask me.

I was going to move this right to humour, but I do think it illustrates a valuable point, so I'm going to let it stay here for a bit.

Adrian Selby

I wonder whether the chances of a man called Hoover inventing the er, hoover are any greater than the almost infinite number of coincidences with incredibly huge odds we're surrounded by every moment of every day.

Is it any more unlikely than the fact that when I crossed the road earlier a blue Ford Galaxy drove past with a woman driving with long blonde hair?

The way the events in mine and that woman's lives must have panned out in their entirely unrelated variety so that we happened to be on the same piece of street at exactly the same moment are staggering, moreso if you were to try to predict this at the point of which the both of us were born. Who could have predicted that we'd both be at that piece of street 30 years later.

When this is extrapolated though, and we look at the odds that the 330ml of Coke I bought, out of all the coke produced in the world, would end up in the can I bought, well, the odds really are huge. Yet for every moment it seems strange to think that all of it, every moment of our lives is subject to massive odds against things happening that are in fact happening, that it stops making sense to think there are events that are lucky, and, in relation to points theists may put about coincidence and "miraculous" events, there are anything other than incredible coincidences every moment we exist.

I guess it depends on the frame of reference, for if I were to say that a bus drove past at the moment I crossed the road, we would say there's a reasonable chance that this would be the case due to the predictable nature of bus timetables. But outside this frame of reference, perhaps stating again how likely it was that 32 years ago when I was born what were the odds that I'd be stood in that part of that street at the time that particular bus went by, out of all the buses the bus company bought, then it becomes staggering.

Why I'm sharing all this waffle I'm not sure, but I did find it interesting to note how depending on how far back one wants to take it, almost any describable event has incredibly huge odds against being able to predict it would happen as it in fact did.

Adrian, brain all over the place.

PopeInTheWoods

Wow! My wife has long blonde hair, but she drives her car with her hands (steering wheel) and feet (accelerator/brake).

Ojuice5001

And how about this? Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. It cannot be a mere coincidence that someone of that name invented an instrument that, until recently, made a sound like that of a bell ringing. Also the fact that Roman paganism originated in Rome is of course proof that Jupiter was overseeing the creation of this religion. If the Gods did not exist, it probably would have originated in Syndey, Australia.

Edited to add: I continue to believe that there are coincidences that really do point to the gods. An example of this would be the death of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on the fiftieth anniversary of Independence Day. Clearly they were being summoned by the patron deity of the United States for their reward in the afterlife. But this form of argument is both easily abused and never accepted by naturalistic atheists, as this thread shows. That's why I felt free to participate in it.

[ June 14, 2002: Message edited by: Ojuice5001 ]</p>

Godless Sodomite

And has anybody noticed that eggs are created to fit snuggly into egg cartons? Evolution my ass!

Our local news station, News 12 Long Island is on channel 12. The odds against that happening due to random chance make me want to run to the nearest church and kneel before a priest.

-Jerry