What do you think about the concept of luck/destiny/fate?
Posted by freespirit_tck@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 52 comments
In many countries especially in Asia, there is a pretty strong belief in the concept of luck/destiny/fate. In fact people even consult astrologers or tarot card readers etc.
How about you? Do you think some people are luckier or do you feel that each of us have our own fate/destiny?
virtual_human@reddit
There is zero verifiable evidence that anything supernatural exists.
Confetticandi@reddit
I don’t do astrology or fortune telling or anything, but I like to believe in things like luck and fate and other little superstitions because life is less dull and the world is more magical that way.
Like, I met my spouse online after moving cities for a better dating pool and going through literally thousands of online dating profiles and dozens of in person dates.
Was meeting the absolute perfect person for me a matter of statistical probability? Yeah. Is it more fun to think that we were always fated halves of the same whole meant to find each other in every lifetime? Absolutely. And that’s what this love feels like.
TheChivalrousWalrus@reddit
Personally. The concept of fate is utterly horrifying. It means that there is no free will, no reason to exist except to play your predestined role in some great play you will never know the point of.
brak-0666@reddit
In my experience, there's no such thing as luck.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
luck is real but fate/destiny is not.
OutrageousTale5999@reddit
Luck is Karma.
Rarewear_fan@reddit
Don’t think this board is a good representation of the actual US. Reddit in general skews more rational/skeptical of these things than what the general US would probably report.
Not saying all Americans are superstitious, but probably more than what the sample here would infer.
lyrasorial@reddit
But sometimes deeply religious people also don't believe in luck because it conflicts with God's plan. I know someone who won't say "good luck!" To someone because God already has a plan for them and the wish won't matter.
CanoePickLocks@reddit
I wonder how true that is given weird subs I’ve found. Just off hand Mandela effect, various religious subs Alexis by the hundreds or thousands, there’s luck subs, and almost anything you can think of. Hell conspiracy is a massive sub.
Derangedberger@reddit
Superstition is somewhat common, especially among young women, in the form of astrology, homeopathy, etc. But other than that, by and large I think America buys very little into non-religious forms of non-secular belief.
Sea_Dot8299@reddit
Does not exist. Everything is determined by statistics and probability. Literally everything. Yes, it is very possible for the improbable to happen. It isn't due to divine intervention, destiny, or luck though.
poopoodapeepee@reddit
Can’t luck/chance be mathematically proven in many situations? Like, gambling for example.
Sea_Dot8299@reddit
Not sure what you mean by "proven" but calculated? Absolutely. Gambling is entirely about stats and probability.
Let's say you're playing Texas hold'em and you have 3 aces. Your opponent has a full house so your screwed. You ate both all in and can see you're up against a full house. Your only hope is to pull the 4th ace on the river. What's your odds? We'll, you can see 4 cards on the table, two from you opponent, and two in the hole (let's assume bullets). There is only one more ace left and you can see 8 cards, so your chance of getting the ace is 1/44= 2.27% to win. Let's say you pray and pray and pray to the gods, rub your lucky charms for luck, and do some kind of dance out of superstition. You end up getting the ace and win. Was it because of the luck god and fate? No. It was simply because there was a non zero probability you'd have a chance at getting the ace.
Play that hand one million times though and you'll lose the vast majority of times.
poopoodapeepee@reddit
Yes, proven meaning calculated. Luck literally means “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” Meaning, you play the same hand the same way and sometimes you win but the odds are against you. Luck isn’t spiritual it’s chance, which is statistically proven.
CanoePickLocks@reddit
The definition in quotes makes it clear that luck is probability amusingly enough. Chance means it can happen there’s a nonzero chance of it happening. I just watched a video where a guy did some napkin math on what the odds are of someone’s hand quantum tunneling through a 1cm wall. It was 1x10^35 iirc.
poopoodapeepee@reddit
That’s interesting. So there’s a non zero chance of tunneling out of a prison if you’re lucky 😂
CanoePickLocks@reddit
Exactly! Just run into the wall enough times and eventually you’ll quantum tunnel out. I’d guess the exponent would go up significantly to get your whole body out. I can’t do the math without all the base level research or googling the amounts of atoms of various types energy states etc but a guesstimate based on what I know? Your hand is around .5-1% of your mass so let’s go with an average man and skew it up some to 0.75% which means 99.75% of you is not part of the problem. Can use that to extrapolate that the other insanely small number is less than 1% of the total for the whole body. Well round up and just multiply it by 100 to make it 1x10^350 and then the wall is say 1m thick that’s 1000x increase so we’ll then multiply 1000 as a guesstimate without looking at the formula they used that it would be 1x10^350,000 chance to quantum tunnel through a single 1m wall in a prison. Likely a lot higher because concrete or stone as the material means it’s denser (I think they used wood in the formula) and requires more energy per atom.
poopoodapeepee@reddit
😂😂😂 we simply MUST keep this information out of prisoners hands!
CanoePickLocks@reddit
Now we should broadcast it to give them hope in the dark times they’re going through!
SabresBills69@reddit
from a mathematic perspective you have a probability of winning and of losing. luck is when you win when the probability to win is very low
fried_clams@reddit
There is no destiny or fate. Luck is just random chance.
I vote for empirical reality. There is no evidence to support the mystical aspects of those three words/concepts.
WinterRevolutionary6@reddit
Luck is something that happens to you out of your control. Fate/destiny are not things I believe in
Vexonte@reddit
I don't necessarily believe in luck, but I will hedge my bets on it if all I risk is waisting 2 seconds to knock on wood.
CanoePickLocks@reddit
Better safe than sorry but wheee do you draw the line? Going around ladders that are fully empty and nothing could fall on you? Throwing slot? Appeasing faeries? Where you draw your lines like based on how much time/money it costs to partake in it is relevant.
BizarroMax@reddit
I don't believe in any of that. It's just the human observation of randomness, but when mixed with our psychological tendencies, we feel like we are always unlucky and nobody else is. I don't believe in "soul mates" either, an idiotic concept.
CanoePickLocks@reddit
Pattern recognition means when someone else has a pattern of wins do to probability or ability it can be attributed to luck. Luck is probability happening to statistically line up.
jrice138@reddit
Astrology and tarot just seems like the biggest load of horseshit imaginable.
TsundereLoliDragon@reddit
There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.
Hoosier_Jedi@reddit
90s movies forever!
Bonch_and_Clyde@reddit
80s
Hoosier_Jedi@reddit
T2 was from the early 90s.
CanoePickLocks@reddit
As best I can recall it’s in all of them. There is no fate was in the first Terminator movie in 1984, the full version was in T2 1991. Both of you are right to varying degrees. On a note of other random trivia The lockpicking scene was real and I forgot how long she practiced that and how long they had to film it but she legit learned that specific lock systems weakness. As best I can recall it was more than a month learning it. 6 weeks comes to mind to go from no knowledge of picking to learning how to open that lock without any movie magic. Quite impressive.
Tron_35@reddit
I see a fellow terminator 2 fan
Bonch_and_Clyde@reddit
It's from the first movie, or really just the series in general.
Real-Psychology-4261@reddit
Luck comes more often to people that are prepared and work hard.
unintentionalfat@reddit
There's no fate but what we make for ourselves
shelwood46@reddit
I think it tends to be used mostly by people born on third base to explain how they skated through life. Some Americans may believe those things, but I think far more think it is just an amusing thing, something teens do to amuse themselves. There is definitely a feminine tilt to it in life stuff (astrology, tarot) though very masculine in sports (the ways people try to get "luck" for their teams, even players, can be hilarious, and they are well aware of it). Some people are luckier, in that they wore born more privileged or gifted, but I don't think you can do much to "change" your luck except to work hard and be positive and generous to others. There may not be luck, but when you are kind and help others, that often comes back to you in expected ways. So go volunteer.
wizrslizr@reddit
firm believer that you can make your own luck and that’s the way a lot of people become successful
elisabethofaustria@reddit
I believe in the concept of luck in that so much life is random: for example, I was lucky to be born in a wealthy family, but unlucky to be born with several lifelong disabilities. Both of these things have dramatically impacted my life.
But I don’t believe in destiny/fate in that I don’t think your entire life is predetermined once you are born.
Bonch_and_Clyde@reddit
Luck is just statistics and probability. It's what you don't have control over, which is a lot. The odds happen to work out for some people. In some ways the odds worked out for a lot of us in ways that we take for granted. It isn't anything mystical. Don't believe in fate or destiny or any mystical stuff like that. It feels pretty silly. It's all taking advantage of and making the best of what opportunities you were lucky enough to have.
devilscabinet@reddit
I don't believe in the supernatural, including things like luck, destiny, and fate.
chairmanghost@reddit
I beleive in luck, and I beleive we can influence it with things like charms, and red underwear.
poopoodapeepee@reddit
Luck is chance, which is to some extend mathematically proven. The other two are more religious or spiritual.
ThePurityPixel@reddit
Feelings don't play a part in this. I believe we all have a destiny.
We could use the word "predestination" to describe it, but I believe God created time and is therefore outside time, so establishing a chronology to His authorship of history is silly.
DOMSdeluise@reddit
Luck is real in the sense that sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't, but I don't believe in luck in the sense that it's a quality someone can have or that someone can influence. I do not believe in destiny or fate even a little bit.
wormbreath@reddit
Very well said. How I feel too. Shit happens. Sometimes good shit happens. But it’s nothing more than that.
f3tilt@reddit
"I'm a big believer in luck- I find the harder I work, the more of it I have"
Outside of that though, it comes down to the fact that God has good plans for us even if they can be hard to understand in the moment.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Fortune favors the bold and is absolutely enamored with the prepared.
FunImprovement166@reddit
Luck is for losers.
Hoosier_Jedi@reddit
Nope. It’s nonsense.
Josephcooper96@reddit
Im a pagan so I align with that belief and know many others who do as well
Adzehole@reddit
For me, luck is basically a word that describes results. If someone's lucky, it's not that they have some inherent quality about them. They just happened to win the dice roll more than most. So basically, I don't believe in destiny or any kind of predetermined fate, but some people do just happen to fall into better circumstances than others or get opportunities that others don't.
Personally, I like the idea that my life isn't decided for me. There may be people who've lucked into better circumstances than me, but I'm also fully capable of making the best of the circumstances that I find myself in.