Cosmic Jokes?

[Michael]

There’s a book out called “When God Winks,” and some people say God has a sense of humor.

People who say that always make me a little uncomfortable, because they never really explain what they mean.

Are some things just Cosmic jokes?

Case in point:

South Carolina threatened to succeed from the Union in 1832.

In December of that year, Joseph Smith (the first president of the Mormon Church) predicted a Civil War that would begin in South Carolina.

South Carolina backed down after President Andrew Jackson sent seven small Naval vessels and a man-of-war to Charleston harbor, but after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1861, the Civil War did in fact start in South Carolina.

To this day, Mormons point to Joseph Smith’s Civil War prophecy as proof that he was a prophet.

If he wasn’t, and if there is a God, why did God provide them with such a coincidence?

Is this some kind of Cosmic joke?

Also, what about things like this?

Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan is an 1898 novella written by Morgan Robertson. The story features the ocean liner Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. The Titan and its sinking have been noted to be very similar to the real-life passenger ship RMS Titanic, which sank fourteen years later…Although the novel was written before the Olympic-class Titanic had even been designed, there are some remarkable similarities between the fictional and real-life counterparts. Like the Titanic, the fictional ship sank in April in the North Atlantic, and there were not enough lifeboats for the passengers. There are also similarities between the size (800 ft long for Titan versus 882 ft 9 in long for the Titanic[2]), speed (25 knots for Titan, 22.5 knots for Titanic[3]) and life-saving equipment.

Beyond the name, the similarities between the Titanic and the fictional Titan include:[original research?]

Both were triple screw (propeller)
Described as "unsinkable"
    The Titanic was the world's largest luxury liner (882 feet, displacing 63,000 long tons), and was once described as being practically "unsinkable"[citation needed].
    The Titan was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men (800 feet, displacing 75,000 tons, up from 45,000 in the 1898 edition), and was considered "unsinkable".
Shortage of lifeboats
    The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboats, plus 4 Engelhardt folding lifeboats,[4] less than half the number required for her passenger and crew capacity of 3000.
    The Titan carried "as few as the law allowed", 24 lifeboats, less than half needed for her 3000 capacity.
Struck an iceberg
    Moving at 22½ knots,[citation needed] the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of April 14, 1912 in the North Atlantic 400 miles away from Newfoundland.
    Also on an April night, in the North Atlantic 400 miles from Newfoundland (Terranova), the Titan hit an iceberg while traveling at 25 knots, also on the starboard side.
Sinking
    The unsinkable Titanic sank, and more than half of her 2200 passengers and crew died.
    The indestructible Titan also sank, more than half of her 2500 passengers drowning.
    Went down bow first, the Titan actually capsizing before it sank.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility,_ … _the_Titan

Unless someone we don’t know of read “The Wreck of the Titan,” and decided not to buy a ticket for the Titanic, no lives were saved by this eerie coincidence.
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Are such things Cosmic jokes?**

Is there a reason for them?

Are they “coincidence,” and what does that mean if there’s a God (or would the existence of true “coincidences” mean that there is no God)?

If you believe the word has any meaning at all, how would those of you who believe in the existence of God define the word “coincidence”?

[WE_ARE_ALL_BROTHERS]

We had a long discussion on this subject in another thread. I don’t believe coincidences (“cosmic jokes”) have any meaning for us. It’s merely apophenia.

I appreciate Greg Boyd’s evaluation of this sort of stuff here. This article may also be of interest, regarding the Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences.

[Michael]

We had a long discussion on this subject in another thread. I don’t believe coincidences (“cosmic jokes”) have any meaning for us. It’s merely apophenia.

I appreciate Greg Boyd’s evaluation of this sort of stuff here. This article may also be of interest, regarding the Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences.

The talk by Greg Boyd was interesting, and he seemed to prove that there’s no pattern to tornadoes downing Church steeples, but (in the process) did he also prove that God doesn’t exist?

And what about the woman who was told she’d never have children, and became pregnant with what she and her husband considered “a miracle baby,” only to lose it at the time of delivery?

It would have been nice if Greg had gone on to explain why he believes such meaningless coincidences exist in a universe governed by a Supreme Being.
**
I would add that neither of these “coincidences” can be easily explained by freewill.**
**
The Lutherans didn’t will a tornado to strike the steeple when they were deliberating their denomination’s position on the ordination of gay clergy, and I’m sure that neither the woman, her husband, nor her doctor willed that she be told she’d became pregnant after being told she’d never have children, only to lose the child on the day she gave birth.**

So did Greg actually end up proving that God doesn’t exist here?

I don’t believe coincidences (“cosmic jokes”) have any meaning for us. It’s merely apophenia.

Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad,[1] who defined it as the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness”, but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random nature in general, as with gambling, paranormal phenomena, religion, and even attempts at scientific observation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

But if there is a Supreme Being, why would such a thing as apophenia exist?

Why wouldn’t there be a message for someone in every circumstance?

That’s my question here, it’s been my question in every thread related to the subject of “coincidences,” and if anyone’s answered it, I still can’t see the answer.

Can anyone help me?

It’s easy for an atheist to believe in “random” occurrences and “meaningless data.” but what do you, as a Theist, mean by words like “random,” “meaningless,” and “coincidence”?