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9 - Remedies That Science Uses to Compensate for How Humans Tend to Make Errors

from Part III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2019

James C. Zimring
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Summary

There is a whole series of books, including New York Times bestsellers, about how the little “coincidences” we experience in life do not occur by chance – they are actually God speaking directly to us and are called “godwinks.” After all, what other likely explanation could there be? One coincidence might happen by freak chance, but so many people have so many stories that seem so unlikely that this must reflect a greater thing, a greater force – this must be the voice of God speaking to us personally. More than 1 million copies of Squire Rushnell’s “godwinks” books have been sold, so clearly this idea appeals widely to people. Of course, I cannot rule out, nor can anyone else, that God is actually speaking to us by using coincidence as his language – maybe this is just the way that God communicates with humans. Indeed, such is the basis for a vast number of belief systems, the number of adherents to which exceed the number of professional scientists in the world by far (it’s not even close). Can it be possible that so many people are wrong?

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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