Miracle or Luck

[YuzuruHitokiri]

I say luck for that one since something took part and he fell in water when there was a chance he could've slid 3 inches to the right and hit a rock and die.
Something acted upon it and changed the situation.

Yeah, the concept of coincidence. The man fell in just the right way at just the right time to keep his brain alive. It's that simple.

First of all. Let me say this. I am an atheist. Flame me for it. I think that miracles are real, but some people think that its because of super natural means. I don't hate Chirstians, its just that I hate that they believe one person saved this persons life like 10 times. If this acutally happened by super natural means, why isn't AIDS cured? Why isn't Cancer cured?

*Hands over a flame-retardant suit and a fire extinguisher*
The way I see miracles used here is luck that occurred in a dire situation, and the lucky person who got 'saved' really was flabbergasted about the situation, how else could it not have been God!?
Seriously, look at the Dark Ages... Where was God for the Black Death? Where was he when all of his faithful peasants were slaughtered by an invading army?..
Reilgion has always been used to provide an explanation for the world around people... It was so for the Greeks as well... They worshipped their gods and goddesses in hopes of pleasing them and thus gaining favor. Then they would pray in near-death situations for salvation. Christians do it too, I believe it's called Providence.
To elaborate on the last comment by ASuch, are those diseases not killing thousands upon thousands of people every year? Cancer can be contracted by anybody. Why is it that, on average, they die from it? Sure they may see it disappear...but it WILL come back and it WILL get you eventually!..

[Sabeta]

Here's my take on this subject. For those concerned, this might as well be Science vs. Faith. If you are for science, you will be prone here to say luck. If you are for faith then you are more prone to miracles. That's pretty much how this is going to work, and people's religious views will in fact intersperse themselves through this topic. In general, with regards to Luck vs Miracles, I'm going to say that nobody knows. That's the simple truth. We don't know if Jesus could magically cure people with his hands, or if he was an alien with nanobots. (Bad example, I know) We weren't there. Some of us can claim to have experienced miracles, but was it just dumb luck? For those who are versed in String Theory, you'd say that EVERYTHING is luck. (I only know a very small portion of it, so I wont be getting to deep into it.) Essentially, string theory says that there is finite probability that you take a step forward, and are suddenly on mars, and your next step takes you back to earth. This chance is so small it's not even worth considering, but a chance nonetheless. String Theory drove Albert Einstein insane in his later years, as he tried futilely to disprove it, as in his mind "No God would create a world where things could be left to 'Chance.'"

(Ftr, I do believe most medical advances and many discoveries are made completely by accident. Luck? or a celestial hand guiding them?) Even Stephen Hawking's world renowned Physicist says that we can't prove nor deny the existence of any Deity. " We cannot disprove the existence of a God, but science makes him unnecessary."

I myself am an Atheist, but one who is tolerant of religion since I was once Catholic, and understand the needs and desires for religion. So in my view. If you want to call it insane luck, go ahead, it probably was. If you want to call it a miracle, well I'll disagree, but that's your own prerogative. So long as you don't flame me, or try to convert me, or whatever, we can get along just fine.

TL;DR: We don't know, neither side can prove anything for sure. Get over it, believe in what makes you happy.

[Tbird]

I'm a luck guy all the way. I gamble a lot, I win and I lose.

A dude falling and not dying just means someone somewhere else did fall and die. The thing is, the more miraculous a situation looks the more exposed to it we'll be. And why? Because stories like that give good ratings to the guys with camera/pen in hand covering it... If some dude falls down a well and dies; find his ass in the obituary - not the front page.
And you can never rule out how we as humans have a need to see the magic occurring in the world. A magician's work means nothing if he's in a room of cynics.

But I guess that's no real answer. Where I stand on it is that if there's a chance of something happening, that means it has to happen eventually. The chance of a guy being three inches away from death is remote - granted, but it had to happen at some point.
But of course... statistics mean nothing to the individual. If I'm sat with a flush and a straight draw, with two high cards to the board on 4th street with 4:1 on a call, that means I have got 21 outs and I've got roughly 45%~ chance of winning the hand on the river and getting a lovely pay out at the same time. If some donkey beats me with 2/7 off suit, hitting a 2 on the river ( 7%) that doesn't mean some divine hand guided him... It simply means that he doesn't know how to play and the cards aren't going my way today.
And I guess in life none of us know how to play the game... We just make do with the cards we're given and hope in the end we've done the right thing.

I don't care for science nor religion. There's no denying that both bring a whole lot of good to the world. The holy bible might just be fiction, but one can never deny the power of fiction - hell look at the impact it has had on the world for the passed 2000 years or however long it's been around.
They both bring people hope for something. One brings the ideal of a better life on earth while one boasts eternal paradise.
I don't buy into either of them. With science, you learn something at the end of your school life, when you take it to college you have to relearn everything because the playing field has already changed in a matter of months. However, Science brings visible proof... to a degree.
With the bible... Granted it's constant... It's the same as it always will be. But I can't take the word of a book written by man to explain something beyond man. Occasionally, though, that frame of mind breaks when you see something that you nor anyone else can explain - and then good old religion pops into your mind, and religion has a great way of covering its tracks and answering doubts.
But I don't like that. I don't like things to be fool proof. To me it takes away from its validity. A police man will never buy into a perfect air-tight alibi, and I feel the same way about religion.
At least science notices its fault and changes itself accordingly - but in saying that, that also means we shouldn't believe what they tell us at this point in time because a decade down the line, what we thought we knew will ultimately be made redundant.

... I digress xD.
Luck is where my heart lies. But who knows, maybe someone is planning everything out for us. Maybe there's no reason behind anything and we can all live contently nihilisticly. But I guess we'll never know. And if we die and that's the end? We still won't know.

So just sit back and enjoy whatever you're given or whatever you believe in. If it makes you happy -> do it. If it doesn't -> then stop XD.

[Bowser Ex]

I believe in luck because I always count on luck when I'm trying to get a certain thing or to try to win something.

[Gin]

Well, if we take Mostellor and Diaconis' Law of Truly Large Numbers to be true, then we can extrapolate to Littlewood's Law. Basically, The LoTLN says that if you have a big enough sample size, stuff happens. Littlewood's Law expands on that and says that a miracle (An event with special significance) will occur once in 35 days, assuming event rate is at 1 event/second. This means that while you may THINK that you experience a miracle, it is just coincidence.

[Toffeuy]

Other:
I believe fate is written.

[Black Ice]

If you believe in miracles and something seemingly unnatural happens, of course you're going to think it's another miracle. I haven't seen a single case in which an event couldn't be attributed to luck, but then the miracle-believers continue to call it a miracle.

I don't believe in miracles. I also disagree with the whole "what are the chances of a perfect Earth being created" argument because that isn't even an argument. If there's even the slightest possibility of something happening, given an infinite timespan, it will eventually have to happen.

Or maybe everything is pre-determined because everything that happens, including your brain activity and the thoughts/actions that follow, are all caused by chemicals and molecules reacting with each other...

[Tbird]

I also disagree with the whole "what are the chances of a perfect Earth being created" argument because that isn't even an argument. If there's even the slightest possibility of something happening, given an infinite timespan, it will eventually have to happen.

I like you xD

[darklord]

luck is mealy odds landing in your favor and miracles is slim odds landing in your favor both exist if you define it that way

[game]

hmm, in my own opinion, there are luck and miracles

luck defines events which has a slim chance of happening and is beneficial to the person referring to it as luck, also not expected by most people.

miracle on the other hand is just what you call extremely rare events that you don't expect to happen, what you call the impossible, and cannot be explained. if it can be explained, it's not gonna be called miracle.

imagine yourself living in the past, where there is no medicine, and your tribe suddenly caught a sickness you no one can heal, many of your tribesmen die, suddenly one of you develops a natural immunity to the sickness, what would you call that event? even if the sickness is just fever?

NOTE: while imagining this situation, also think that you do not know what fever is or what medicine is. in other word, your a primate.

[venomrec]

if miracles existed i wouldn't be below average height!!! I believe in luck since i'm just plain lucky when it comes to anything. "even tho i dont give it much thought".

[pup5115]

Miracles.

There is clearly a difference between the 2.

Luck is just a term for achieving one's desired outcome usually in the case of low odds.
Miracles are unexplained, well, miracles caused by what appears to be no reason or by a superior being (you may replace the previous few words with the term "God") without facing any odds whatsoever.