Ugh.

[conuly]

So, somebody over on TBW had an experience where she was in a hotel and it occurred to her to do as she does at home and put her bag for the day at the front door. And then she happened to ask her husband about getting out if there was a fire in the main stairwell and he showed her the second exit.

Lo and behold, the fire alarm went off that night! Sure, it was a false alarm - but is that a premonition or intuition?

And I said (apparently I'm the only one) that it was a coincidence. She happened to take a few steps that would help her out in case of fire, and there was a false alarm, and because the human mind is primed to see patterns where none exist we tend to make a bigger deal about coincidences than is truly merited - if she'd slept through the alarm going off, or if it hadn't gone off, she would have forgotten all about it.

Here's what somebody else said:

It's called inspiration, or revelation.
God doesn't ignore us; He knows us very intimately. He speaks to us often in little thoughts and whispers, giving us ideas, premonition, and intuition, and most of the time we don't even recognize it. He encouraged those thoughts in your mind to protect your family and your sanity. I've had experiences like that, too.

It is nice to know God truely is looking out for us.

*sighs*

So, basically, if you should die in a fire because you slept through the fire alarm or because you hadn't thought to ask about a second stairwell, it's because God didn't want to protect your family and your sanity, and wasn't truly looking out for you? Do people even think before they say these things?

Comments

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

I actually disagree with you on this - to an extent. That is, I definitely believe in intuition (having experienced literally VISIONS several times myself) BUT it would be a far stretch for me to then feel (much less argue) that if I did NOT get an intuitive warning, God must therefore not be looking out for me (or whatever divine etc. one believes in). Instead I see it as: sometimes I get random intuitive information. It is good for me to listen to that information. However, those instances are fairly random, and don't necessarily correlate to anything *important* (i.e., I knew when Deme forgot his keys...but he would have climbed in the window anyway, no harm no foul had I NOT known ahead of time) therefore I certainly would nto feel punished in any way for NOT getting one.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I often have this thought process too. People always gasp and say OMG when their intuition is right, or stomp their feet and said, "I KNEW this wasn't going to go right, I should have listened to my intuition" when things go wrong. But all the times in between where you do normal things and nothing happens, you forget about and you would never tell someone, "I put my bag by the door, and there wasn't even a fire!" In fact, if you told someone you ALWAYS put your bag by the door in case of fire, they would probably think you were a paranoid freak... So yeah, I am going with coincidence, especially as she says she usually does this action.

I do think there is something to intuition though. I don't think it's all fiction, although I don't think intuition has anything to do with God or anything like that.

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

Coincidence. Sometimes we do know stuff without knowing how we know it, but that doesn't mean the explanation is supernatural. It just means we don't know why we know.

TRUELY!

I'm nominally Catholic, currently weakly agnostic, and my pet peeve is people praying for material things. Grr.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I did sleep through a fire alarm once. However, I did not sleep through the fireman pounding on my door saying get out, it's a real fire. However, they managed to keep the fire contained to the roof and so even though my room was on the top floor, I'd have been fine, and getting out of bed gave me a migraine. My conclusion, absolutely none other than that annoying things happen.

I do value intuition. Intuition is often the unconscious processing of data you observed but either do not consciously remember or have not fully consciously processed. It is potentially as useful as your consciously processed data, although I think how well it works varies a lot from person to person. I also think someone who is not very observant or who isn't very good at processing information is also likely to have poor intuition, since your intuition is only as good as your brain is at processing info. But some people will be better using the intuitive process than the conscious ones. Some people will also be better with the conscious process and ~should~ ignore their intuition when it conflicts.

But there's nothing magical about it. And it doesn't change this example from being coincidence.

Intuition is things like figuring out that your friend is having a hard day when you feel like there weren't any clues, but there were, and you just didn't pick up on them consciously. Coincidence is guessing the right card that is about to come up in a card game just starting to be dealt. Cheating is stacking the deck, marking the deck, or seriously counting cards (or the last one might just be good play).

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Trying to make religion conform to logic is like trying to thread a needle with a rattlesnake. It can't be done.

Their entire belief system is based on coincidences not being coincidental but rather divine intervention. You can't shake them of this belief, because if you do, their entire belief system falls down under its own weight.

[conuly]

How do they explain random coincidences that go forth and KILL people, then?

[griffen.livejournal.com]

"God's will."

[conuly]

Ah, of course. *grumblegrumblemumble*

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

This incident wasn't ESP or even intuition. It was common sense. Gabe always checks for fire exits on trips. The important stuff is always where we can grab it if something happens. Dragging God into it is completely unnecessary.