Chillichap's World - Thought for the Week - Does Luck Exist? Or is this just another term for Coincidence, Fate or Destiny?

Hello. I really am a completely random person, you know. I might describe myself as chaotic sometimes. My mind often feels like an insane carousel spinning around at an impossible speed only to stop suddenly at some kind of conundrum. Questions pop up into my head sending me on an obsessive search for what I hope is the truth. At the very least, in such events, I hope to crystalise my thoughts (apologies to the multitude (eventually) of my American friends reading this-I am not going to substitute 'z' for an 's' on most occasions).

So I've decided to kick off my blogging with a biggie. Does luck exist? So why am I asking this question in the first place and what makes me qualified to answer? Good question. All I can say is that I'm here right now asking this very question. I'm participating in life, so feel I have the right to be interested in it and even question it. I'm asking if luck exists or not because I have a feeling that I may be able to park a certain part of my thinking-the part that makes me restless, that makes me lazy, that makes me conveniently avoid the truth sometimes.

So what is luck? I don't want to delve too much into the history of luck. The topics I bring up in my blog are more about exploring my feelings and experiences. I'm just going to cite Wikipedia's definition -

'Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to random and non-random natural and artificial processes, and that even improbable events can happen by random chance. In this view, the epithet "lucky" or "unlucky" is a descriptive label that refers to an event's positivity, negativity, or improbability.'

Got that?

A bit of history

In the late 1400s, the English term "luck" initially appeared as a metamorphosis of several similar German, Dutch, and Russian words. It started to be used in gambling. 

Just because a word appeared in our everyday lexicon, doesn't mean the concept wasn't there long before. The Romans had 'Fortuna' who was their god of fate (or luck). 

Christian theology reconciled Fortuna who became God's servant and dished out 'chance' in a fickle or unpredictable way (good or bad luck) - hence the expression 'the fickle hand of fate'. Indeed, Egyptians believe that a cat running across your path is bad luck (bad luck for the cat if you're driving). 

I could go on with this history lesson, but as I said, this is about my thoughts and observations.

Uh oh, have I opened a can of worms with more questions than I started with? Is luck just a concept, because I can't actually see it? We all have experiences of good and bad luck. Confession time. I've been a bit of a gambler over the years-fruit machines, roulette, poker-you name it. I can think of times when I've defied the odds with amazing winning and losing streaks (usually the latter). Hm, 'defied the odds'. Am I saying that whenever things occur in my life outside the bounds of normal probability, I use the word 'luck' to describe and explain these events? I'm starting to wonder if I may use the term 'luck' as some kind of scapegoat for my failures and as a friend for my successes.

OK, what about those people who don't seem to focus on luck but appear to live happy/successful lives? Such people seem to have a more stable life, with steady 9-5 jobs (I'm self-employed), they don't gamble and often religion features in their lives (not for me). They might have the same amount of luck as me. Perhaps people with stability in their lives just don't need luck as their convictions are the bedrock upon which they live their lives. These people will still experience luck but are not relying upon it like I sadly do. 

Conclusion

For us sentient beings, luck seems to exist somehow, but calling it 'chance' or especially  'fate' seems to make it more acceptable-perhaps it's the connotations of gambling associated with luck that people don't like. But I'm unfortunately left with the following questions-

Is luck another word for coincidence, fate or destiny?

Is luck completely random? If so, does that mean the Universe is utterly chaotic? (I can already hear the scientists among you saying 'Don't be daft, we have laws for things-no way is the Universe chaotic'. Why can't there be a law for luck or is that just statistics? What happens when statistics are utterly defied consistently? Can a million-to-one event really happen to the same person twice?

If not

Who or what decides what luck each of us will get?

Do we have to be 'worthy' to get good luck?

Why do really nice people get extremely bad luck?

Is the universe just trying to maintain a balance? - Phrases like 'you're due some luck soon' suggest it is and do people who live a long life end up with a 50:50 split of good and bad luck?

If you get a chance, look up the Double-slit experiment - which appears to completely destroy the notion of randomness. In fact, a Nobel prize awaits the person who can explain it!

Everything in life seems to come down to odds, statistics and perhaps being in the right place at the right time. It's clear that I believe in luck and I could quite easily just call it 'fate'.  In doing so, I'm pretty much saying that an unseen supernatural force is dictating what happens to me in life. I don't like this idea because it suggests that I've become fatalistic, with an imaginary friend who can also be my enemy. I don't like that I am not in control of my life. Luck has essentially become my very own religion that I secretly worship and damn at the same time. So I have to ask myself-is there anything that I can do to make my own luck or even improve my chances? I guess I need to understand how to improve my odds in most matters of my everyday existence. But as with everything else in life, doing one thing has a repercussion on another. I'm not sure I have the time, temperament or patience for this. So I've decided I'll ride my luck and let fate decide.

Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap