From: ata@hfsi.uucp (John Ata - FSO)
Subject: Re: Paying Attention (was: Reincarnation)
Organization: HFS, Inc., McLean VA
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 02:19:27 GMT

In article <1aldv7INNk87@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>
>No, what I was arguing was that your alleged DEFINITIONS were pure bullshit. 
>I'm still waiting to hear what dictionary you claim they came from.  If we let
>you make up your own definitions, you can quite easily prove that white and
>black are the same thing.  That's what you appeared to be trying to do with
>your phony "definitions" of religion and superstition.

Actually, I'm quite flattered that you think that I came up with
these definition by myself.  I did not however.  I mentioned in a
previous posting which dictionary it was but perhaps your news
feed has a problem?  Anyways, I was using the Random House
Dictionary published by Ballantine.  ISBN: 0-345-29096-8. LCCCN:
79-88527.

What I am sorry about, however, is that you seem to see such
evil intentions in people whose views are different then yours.  Why do
you think that is?

>
>=>Not to me, it doesn't. Are you postulating that an object's perceived 
>=>ability to bring good luck _necessarily_ carries with it a perceived ability 
>=>to ward off bad luck? (Or does this come from something more specifically 
>=>related to rabbit's feet?) 
>=
>=Well, assuming that there's bad luck and good luck, then without good luck
>=I would say that I had bad luck.
>
>Hmmm.  You've just ruled out the possibility of an average day.
>
>=>    A friend of mine buys lottery tickets on a regular basis, in the belief
>=>that this could lead to good fortune. (In early 1991 he won $250,000 this
>=>way.) I haven't asked Steve, but I strongly doubt that if he didn't get
>=>around to buying a ticket one week he'd consider this an ominous
>=>circumstance.
>=
>=Sure it is, he might have won the jackpot that week but failed to do it.
>=I would say losing $250,000 is quite a turn of bad luck, wouln't you?
>
>Not when the odds were more than 250000 to 1 against winning.

It doesn't matter what the odds were, if you would have won and
did not buy the lottery tickets, then it was bad luck.  I know
people with the "lottery fever" and they always have a story about
how they would have won the lottery last week but they forgot to
buy a ticket.

>
>=Perhaps you have defined something called neutral luck?  If so,
>=that is a new addition to the English language since luck is
>=usually defined as the force that seems to operate for good or bad
>=in a person's life (Yet another dictionary definition!).
>
>How about the absence of luck, either good or bad?  Oh, I forgot.  You're one
>of these Bible thumpers who can't bring themselves to believe that there's any
>such thing, right?

Gosh Carl, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed today?  My argument on
the use of good/bad luck has nothing to do with my religious beliefs.  We
were discussing how the term luck is used and understood.  I maintain that
if someone believes that good luck has left them, then what they mean is that
misfortune or bad luck will follow.

>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL
>



-- 
John G. Ata - Technical Consultant | Internet:  ata@hfsi.com
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