Lady luck, do you believe??

Luck (also called fortuity) is a chance happening, or that which happens beyond a person's control. Luck can be good or bad (as in; Good fortune or misfortune).

Luck as lack of control
Luck refers to that which happens to a person beyond that person's control. This view incorporates phenomena that are chance happenings, a person's place of birth for example, but where there is no uncertainty involved, or where the uncertainty is irrelevant. Within this framework one can differentiate between three different types of luck:

Constitutional luck, that is, luck with factors that cannot be changed. Place of birth and genetic constitution are typical examples.
Circumstantial luck - with factors that are haphazardly brought on. Accidents and epidemics are typical examples.
Ignorance luck, that is, luck with factors one does not know about. Examples can be identified only in hindsight.


the question is do you believe in luck??

I believe that things in life happen for a reason but I don't believe in luck per-say.

I have a similar view to Kat's, except I don't believe that everything happens for a reason. No luck, no superstitions, no fate. We're just here, whittling away our silly, mundane little lives, going in our own direction, lost and confused, until finally we die. Not exactly a pleasant outlook. but hell, it's realistic.

do you not believe that we can make our own luck?? that if we percieve goals and aim for them that we could eventually reach them? and along the way other 'good' things can happen in turn because we are doing this??

No, because that's not luck. It's the abilty to set yourself a goal and achieve it with the utmost determination, without making too many mistakes. It's their own personal triumph, down to their own skill and general personality, not luck, that's just robbing them of their right to be talented. Seemplez.

thats not what i said or ment,
lets say for instance man gets up and decideds today is the day he will be happy for the rest of his life, he makes breakfast and gets dressed all the while smiling and whistling to himself, he puts on his coat and puts his hand in his pocket only to discover a £20 pound note he didnt realise he had, (luck?) he walks to work all the while still smiling and thinking happy thoughts, he arrives at work and sees the girl he likes, thinks about her all the while hes working and decides that today is the day he will ask her out only she beats him too it and asks him for a drink (luck?) his boss callls him in later on and says to him that he has noticed a marked improvement in him and offers him a raise (luck?)
the man goes out for this drink with the girl , afterwards when he comes to pay the bill he remembers the £20 pound note and uses this to pay (luck?) that night when he gets home he thinks back on his day and decided that the few things that happened he would class as having good luck all because he decided that he would be happy from this day forth.

hid usual day would consist of being miserable, down hearted and quiet. but the single act of deciding to be happy changed all that? causing all the good things to happen, he didnt strive for them neccesarily did he??

Those I would call 'happy coincidences'

I believe that the choices that we and others decide how our life will play out. like those decision trees that used to be in girly mags.

I don't believe that with each choice two parallel dimensions are created - I think a choice is a choice and cannot be remade. Our world runs along one linear time and dimension - I do believe that there are other dimensions, other universes out there, thought that maybe there's one somewhere full of the spirits of those who have died in this dimension - abit like in the northern lights trillogy

but yeah.. I don't believe in luck, I believe in the power that is human choice.

That is what I was driving at initially. I understood from the word go, we're still alone, regardless, and everything is down to our own conscious decisions. Pretty much what Kat just said, just a lot more negative and pessimistic.

haha well i'm usually quite optimistic =P so we balance each other out eh?

There is no luck. Only blind action and reaction. The very existence of physics defies all classification of this 'luck'
Random chance is all there is, alongside things defined by very clear rules. Nothing inbetween.

There is no plan. No over-riding powers that be, that give out luck as presents.

Just you, the universe and blind chance.

Take a spin on the roulette wheel of life. You might get...'lucky'

I see the contradiction in what your saying.....

First before we can dismiss it we must define what luck is or is'nt,

besides you get back what you put in, so be nagative get negative ect..........................

Luck excists dam it x

Well, for starters, luck ISN'T real. Luck, however, IS a waste of time and a cause for false optimism and hope, a distraction from the futilty and endless monotony of life...yes?

Oh, and along the lines of luck you have chain mail. Surely it would be fairly bad luck to die over such a minor act of not posting a certain message to 10 more videos, forums, whatever. And fairly good luck to be kissed by the love of your life, and/or have the best day of your life by actually carrying out that task. (Bearing in mind that I'm quite tired and I'm listening to the new version of Alvin and the Chipmunks 'Hula Hoop' and have involunatarily begun raving to it, maybe after I've had a snooze this might not seem like a valid argument, but still, here's the conclusion). As we all know, chain mail is utter bollocks, and you know nothing is going to happen as a result, so if chain mails relate heavily to luck then what's to stop luck being completely bollocks aswell?

Luck really doesn't seem like it can possibly exist to me.

By 'things happening for a reason' I mean that... I've looked back at my life and seen all the shit things that have happened to me and then seen where they have taken me - i've met certain people, been certain places because of those bad things and I wouldn't be the person I am today without them

that's what i meant by things happening for a reason - and I do believe that something out there might have a hand in it, but I believe human choice is the driving force

if there is something beyond us - some greater power, then I believe it planned eternity out as best it could, designing everything that was in that one place at the big bang and then 'lit the match' so to speak

but as with every good plan comes a spanner - human nature, the most unpredictable and uncontrollable force on the planet - and our biggest power is choice.

There is no luck - only choice and coincidence.

I am however starting to think there's something in the idea of karma by the fact that one of the most horrible and selfish people I know suddenly got gangreine in her foot and ended up having to have her leg amputated to stop it spreading and killing her.

and the other horrible selfish person I know just lost his wife to cancer and his elderly mother was found dead in her apartment less than 2 weeks later.
Now he's left struggling with the jobs he forced onto those two people. he finally can't use people for his own gain anymore.

so yeah... I do think you get what you put in.... hence the karma thing... but I also think that life is life.. and even if you put lots of good in, you'll more than often get shit back *Shrugs* life's a bugger like that.

Everything this entire argument stands for can be summed up quite simply:

stargirlphotography wrote:

By 'things happening for a reason'
There is no luck - only choice and coincidence.

I personally do not believe in a divine guiding force, Luck or Karma.If there was some kind of guiding force I would not have the shit I've had in my life and having right now, if there was then perhaps I am merely a tool used to influence others, inflict damage upon others to affect their future decisions so they'll meet the people they know now. A 'Cog' in the divine plan, making sure everything keeps on spinning, things slotting into place etc, no real intention for myself except to get involved or 'meddle' until finally I die.

Which leads me onto thinking that there's no such thing as luck, since given my miserable past, present and, no doubt, future, nothing can be 'lucky' for me since I cannot rely on anything to get me anywhere because everything I try and have ever tried which requires even a SMALL element of chance (or luck, if you will) has gone completely and catastrophically wrong.

As for karma, I used to be nice, once upon a time, shit things happened to me, I was pleasant and friendly yet everything seemed to go wrong, regardless of how much effort I put into it. I got no good out of being nice. Now I'm bitter, sick and twisted and shit things still seem to be going on, regardless of how I behave. So... how could karma possibly exist, just because a couple of bad people have bad things happening to them?
I'm sure even the good people had bad things happening to them while all of this was going on, things to make them feel miserable while the bad people had bad things going on.

It's relatively safe to say that there is no justice in the world.

what I've been saying would explain even the shit things that happen to us all - and i've had enough shit myself don't worry - by the fact that that 'guiding force' has/had a plan for us but the human element - the 'unforseen variable' as mathmeticians would put it - will often take that plan into dark areas that the 'guiding force' would never have planned for us... all the horrible things in my life have been caused by other humans or by human biology - people dying, people being utterly evil. There is no external force behind those.

but if I hadn't have gone through all that 'evilness' then I would never have met Dom. Naomi, my fiance, the friends I have at my college now... all the horrible things that have happened to me have steered me down this path. Maybe there was a different plan that would have seen me not go through any shit, but if it wouldn't have involved meeting dom and doug etc... then i'd rather take the shit along with their friendship thankyou

We are not being used as a 'tool' or a 'cog' - our own choices steer the direction of our life and the lives of those we come in contact.

You appear to be forgetting, if there is a 'guiding force', then that force has designed a plan, as you said, but humans tend to slot into that plan, their movements and actions have all been planned out, such is the idea of fate. The human element has no effect whatsoever on the plan, presuming there is one. Which, as a cynic, I do not believe there is. Again, we are alone and lost.

But still, your argument contradicts itself, since you would have met all those people and had all of those experiences as a result of the plan. As you were fated to do so. Fate is one thing, but no plan whatsoever is another completely. The human factor has already been planned out, otherwise there WOULD be no plan, every action we do is being dictated by a guiding force.

Despite me not believing in a plan, I do believe in continuity, you must keep your story straight, missy.

As I said, IF there is a plan, then I am clearly just a cog, the influencing factor, making certain people do certain things in order for the plan to fall into place, my actions too being dictated, but in a manner in which disguises the fact that there is a plan, so that my intervention simply makes others directions seem more like their own decision.... perhaps even a 'stepping stone', if you will. But I prefer the 'cog' likeness, since it is my nickname at college. Either way, my existance is only to allow others to achieve their destiny, without having one of my own.
Like when you play the sims and you set up a family that you want to work on... but in order for them to have realistic lives and interesting friends and such, you have to also work on other people. When really, you don't care about these sims so you just do whatever with them, since you won't be playing them much, they're just to help your sim on their way to greatness. I am one of those 'helper' sims, as my past would explain.

Of course, I don't believe this myself, I just put my shortcomings down to me being useless, and nothing more. Blaming divine intervention is a little like passing the buck, don't you think? People have 'bad luck' and misfortune because they're useless, there's nothing more to it.