Do you believe in luck ?

I do believe.

( One day I said my friend “I wish you good luck!”

My friend  replied :"Thank you for your kind thoughts.However I do not believe in luck.” )

I do believe in luck....however, I believe it is something that we create for ourselves by ensuring that we put ourselves in the best possible environment and by surrounding ourselves with kind, loving and supportive people.  I also believe that we are as lucky as we believe ourselves to be.  I feel lucky to wake up in the morning and see my kids, have a job I can enjoy, a supportive husband and a loving family.  I guess I could tell myself that I am unlucky that I dont´ make a few million dollars a year, that I don´t have everything that I thought I would have at this point in my life, or that I have lost many family members in recent years.  So yes, I believe in luck, but I don´t think it is something that falls out of the sky and lands in your lap.  I guess, for me, it works more like karma. 

Of course there is luck, it´s an objective finding -- nothing to believe in! For example, when I take a test, and see questions only related to stuff I have learned, then I had luck! The same questions may not have been lucky to someone else though..  How one feels lucky in general -- Elisabeth has put an answer to that very nicely.

For Catwoman and Elisabeth: Thank you very much  for the contributions.Yes Elisabeth has put an answer to that very nicely.

(However some friends do not believe in luck.)

 Hahahaha Elisabeth you creep!

@ Yilgun, so you only liked Elisabeth´s answer because you agreed with it?

 I AM SOOOOOOOO GONNA BE THE PERSON OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Are these the same "friends" who are going to be selecting the person of the year?

Yes, some of them.

They are good, sincere and honest members of the TLC.

And they are, as a select committee, going to be selecting

the person or persons of the year 2009-Turkish Language Class (TLC)

under my control.

I believe in luck...yes... However I also believe every event happens for a reason whether good or bad.

Meeting someone beautiful and spectacular can be considered great luck.

But in the same token that same person could be a source of stress.

Just an example of how luck can be a little "bittersweet"

I do believe in luck. However some seem more lucky than others in this life

This is a good point from clhyman :

"Meeting someone beautiful and spectacular can be considered great luck.But in the same token that same person could be a source of stress.

I do believe in luck. However some seem more lucky than others in this life."

A good luck also sometimes could be a source of big trouble.

Nothing lasts forever.

I used to think I was unlucky...until i realized how much I learned from "bad luck"

I believe in luck, when you win the lotery that´s really lucky!

But I don´t believe happiness is dependent on luck.

About “Luck”:

Everyone has a destiny.

You were born in England,USA, Germany,etc.

But you could have been born in Africa, Asia or another continent and country.

And you live in this country.

It is like a lottery.

About “Happiness”:

Happiness is not free, it is a labour, it requires effort, knowledge and devotion.

You are loved as much as you love; you are respected as much as you respect.

You build your happiness.

But money doesn’t bring it.

It is not like a lottery.

A song from Paul Anka

You Are My Destiny

You are my destiny
You share my reverie
You are my happiness
That´s what you are

You have my sweet caress
You share my loneliness
You are my dream come true
That´s what you are

Heaven and heaven alone
Can take your love from me
´Cause I´d be a fool
To ever leave you dear
And a fool I´d never be

You are my destiny
You share my reverie
You´re more than life to me
That´s what you are

You are my destiny
You share my reverie
You are my happiness
That´s what you are

I don´t believe in destiny. I think whatever comes along is all coincidence (both good and bad things). But I strongly feel it´s up to us what we do with the things that happen to us. There are things we have no influence on and all we can do about them is try to make the best of them.

Do I believe in luck? Sure. Just as much as in bad luck

I don´t believe in destiny either at least not in the religious sense. Neverheless, I don´t believe that coincidences govern everything that happens around us either. Beginning from the smallest particles of matter everything interacts with itself in line with a certain set of protocols. Matter itself is organized by a mastermind or some sort of entity whose reasoning is reminiscient to some extent of and vastly superior to ours. This does not necessarily have to be God. Maybe there is indeed God and we are living and dying according God´s will. I just don´t know anyhing about this.  I am just not very satisfied by either Jesus or Mohammad. I tend to believe if God communicated with us God would certainly arrange it in a more persuasive manner. Now that God must have enough means to get a message through.

We are currently still driven by the winds of individualism that have opened up the doors of freedom to many of us. We feel able, confident omniscient and omnipotent. It sometimes hurts to remember though that we don´t know the first thing about neither fate nor the nature of our very own existance. 

I guess it´s how you define luck...If you feel lucky most likely your an optomistic person.  Can positive mind control play into having luck?..hmmm I tend to think so.  If your ora is pestimistic then I tend to think you attract negative energy.  For the most part you do have some control of your destiny..however, I don´t necessarily think luck plays into it.  You also have to remember that someone´s luck maybe somebody elses misfortune.

Exactly! People take treat the same experiences differently. For one person being given a million euro will be happy and consider it luck while another may find it a burden.

If you are an optimistic person, you´re likely to ignore or make light of mishaps and if you´re a pessimist even something apparently irrelevant can cause you to get depressed.

Like today when I was driving through the woods from work...I was jamming to loud music and for some reason I slowed my speed...at the moment I lowered my speed a DEER ran very quickly in front of my car and into the woods.

Hmmm...I wonder was that luck? Whatever the case I am happy I did not hit the deer.

Yes it was a good luck for you, Clhyman and for the deer.

At that moment you felt something presentiment, you lowered your speed, then the  deer ran very quickly  in front of  your  car  into the woods;  so  you did  not  hit  the beautiful deer. And the deer is also very happy now like you. 

The beautiful deer... I am afraid of the beautiful deer... But yes.. I am sure "Bambi" is very happy too.

Yes I do, but I don´t think most people know how to understand what is good or bad luck. 

For instance most parents think having a beautiful child is good luck.  But this could be very wrong. 

Many "beaufiful" women or men learn to depend of their looks, rather than develop other qualities.  They are even prevented or discouraged in developing those other attributes.

Look at the sad case of Anna Nicole Smith.....what a tragic lady she really was. To many she would seem very lucky........a very wealthy husband, a well endowed body, a pretty face....but how sad it all turned out.

Often times we think something is bad luck, when maybe this event actually was the best thing that could happen. 

Another sad case is the case of Howard Hughes..........scramble for the billions

I as a believer call this will of God or appreciaion of God but not luck. In my opinion there is no luck, no coincidence in subsistence and no arbitrariness in existence. There is no good luck or bad luck either. Good or bad luck are realted to yourself. Winning a lottery is just possibility, human cannot know possibilities but God can. Thats the law of nature which is the same as kelimetullah or wil of God and there is no change in kelimetullah. Possibility is one of the law of nature and thus will of God, just like among hundreds of thousands of spremcells, only one of them which reaches the first, fertilize the femalecell and the conditions which make that spermcell first, is the God´s will. Isnt that the laws that determine the best position of spermcell? So God´s will are expressed in His laws of universe. People usually confuse humanwill with God´s will, humanwill subject to emotions and whims controlled by needs, how can will of God has the same definition as He is without any need?

As for the destiny, its again related to God´s will of course not a concept of God´s contentedness, human has frewill within God´s appreciation, God put laws on ruling of subsistence, puts law due to ontological strucuture but human cannot. It can be described with a simile like you are on your way to İstanbul for instance and İstanbul is sure our destination, you have no control over that, what you can control is how you reach İstanbul, one can reach following the rules or one can reach using tricks...

I think you are argueing semantics....call it what you will.  You don´t know what it is written, nor could you understand it if you did, so it´s not relevant to you.....Too many, and in particular in the "East" have the  it´s "Written"...so what can I do attitude? If you are a believer, as you say, you believe in Free Will....so you have to take responsibility for your actions..........

There is a story about a family who were in a flood zone that was ordered to evacuate.  They went to the home and told them to get out, but the residents said, "the Lord will save us, we depend on Him"

The waters rose and they had to move to the second floor, the authorities came by in boats to help them evacuate....same story....they would wait for the Lord to save them....

Next they were on their roof and they came by in helicopters to rescue them, but again they said they were waiting for the Lord to rescue them.

They ended up drowning and when they asked what happened, they were told, "We sent vehicles,  boats were sent, helicopters were sent.......you refused them all......

As I said in my previous post, we really have no idea of what is really "good luck". Many times what we think is really good luck is but a curse.

Since i believe in free-will, you should guess i am oppossed to predetermination.  What i understood from the word luck, something happened arbitrarily, good or bad and people call it luck, isnt that the way people use it? And i say its not luck, that thing happened is serving the will of God not a coincidence and not arbitrary. All is from God...

-According to the belief, if anyone does a righteous deed, it enures to the benefit of his/her  own soul;

If he/she does evil, it works against his/her own soul.

-İyi başlayan bir şey kötü sonuç verebilir.

Kötü başlayan bir şey de iyi sonuç verebilir.

İyi ve kötü talih belli bir sürecin sonunda anlaşılır.

Hiçkimse bunu bilemez.Onu yalnız Allah bilir.

Ama inancımıza göre, eğer aklınızı kullanıyorsanız, güzel düşünüp güzel ve yapıcı davranışlar sergiliyorsanız, çevrenizde faydalı işler yapıyorsanız, iyi niyetli ve temiz kalpli iseniz iyi talih sizi zaten bulur.

Yes, you have a good point.

Popular usage of the word "luck" is often different from actual dictionary definitions.  Meanings change through time, and how words are used changes.  Also, there are regional differences that color the meaning of words.

I think in essence we are in agreement. I would say some have it easy, and others have things difficult. Perhaps that has more to do with how one reacts to one´s lot....so to speak.

I have been taking a lot of walks lately and I am amazed at how much passed me by before. You know, stop and smell the flowers? There was so much I had not appreciated. Fabulous beauty was all around me, but I had not noticed it.

I am somewhat jealous of my cats, who are very much in the moment. Humans are always seeming to be looking to the future, and missing the present.  How many times have we lost what we have, only to later mourn our loss, but while we were in it, we were (in our mind) someplace else.

You say only Allah knows the best, and then you add if you are a good person and you do good deeds, good luck will find you, how can you be sure if only Allah knows the best? Anyway it is explained in Kuran;

4:78-Wherever you may be, death will find you, even if you are in fortified towers. If any good befalls them, they say: "This is from God" and if any bad befalls them, they say: "This is from you!" Say: "All is from God;" what is wrong with these people, they barely understand anything said!

4:79-Any good that befalls you is from God, and any bad that befalls you is from yourself/your nafs. We have sent you as a messenger to the people and God is enough as a witness.

So where is luck? If you say something good or bad happened as a consequence of luck, then where is God? It is simply kind of shirk according to my understanding...

Everybody has a destiny according to the belief.

Nobody  can knows it.

But life is a sum of  choices,  good and bad..

You reap what you sow.

 I completely disagree with this statement.  Whilst a lot of your life depends on decision making, much seems to be thrown at you for no reason whatsoever.  the likelihood of good and bad happening to you is random, so whilst many people can go through life with fairly equal amounts of good and bad events, there are many people who seem to get MORE good or bad. 

This has nothing whatsoever to do with religious beliefs or living a "good" life - indeed I know of many "bad" people who have a lot of good fortune, and many many very "good" people who have had the most horrible, tragic events happen to them.  Therefore it is not always true that you "reap what you sow" ... unfortunately!  If only it were that simple. 

The earliest pagan religions did not understand thunderstorms, earthquakes etc. and would believe that that "God/Allah was angry".  We now know the science behind such events, but it seems some religions refuse to let go of the thought that events are "the will of God/Allah".

If you still believe that you "reap what you sow" trying saying this phrase to a starving child in Africa...

 I assume this is a joke?

If not, may I ask some questions?

(1)  Who elected this "committee"?  I am rather uncomfortable with a secret select committee of "good, sincere and honest members" judging us from ther ivory tower  

(2)  Does this "select committee" represent TLC?  Has admin approved such grand decision making?

(3)  Does a new select committee need to be set up to decide if your select committee are "good, honest and sincere".  After all, we only seem to have your word for it

(4)  What does "under your control" mean exactly?

For  TheAenigma only :

So who´ll select this “committee”?

I think your friends can select it.

And the committee you select of course represents TLC.

Ok.

You are right.

I have changed my mind.

And I have cancelled this friendly  election.

Thank you.

If somebody understood whats this to explain me too...

You should used  private  messages but you post it in forum. No sorry but forum is public 

I believe in luck...... because when I was about 8 years old, had I run out into a car park 2 or 3 seconds earlier I would have been hit by a car but fortune was on my side that day and I ran out into the side of the car, much to the drivers shock! 

A lot of so called luck is something that the person has subconsciously or consciously organised, for instance in your job or in your studies.  You can make a decision to do well or not do well, it is up to you, luck does not feature.

 What´s there to select? I am the person of the year!

 Eh?

I think you are easily offended Yilgun and stamping your feet like a child

(PS. I take it I will not be "Person of the Year" now?)

 Now I know why you call yourself crazy!  hehehe....I already won!  I took yilgun to the Caribbean and he ASSURED me that I am the winner!