Q&A: Stories of Divine Providence
Stories of Divine Providence
Question
Sometimes you hear stories of divine providence (from reliable sources) that really make you think. That is, the chain of coincidences in them often raises an eyebrow, and sometimes even inspires amazement. So true, you can’t prove with a fully logical proof that the hand of providence was at work here, but on the other hand it feels stubborn to insist that it was all just chance.
What should our attitude be toward cases like these?
Answer
No particular attitude. Each story should be judged on its own merits. If there is a reasonable alternative explanation (not just that it was “simply chance” with probability zero), then there is no reason to accept that this is providence. And if there is no explanation, then yes. Feelings are very misleading in cases like these. I wouldn’t ignore them, but I also wouldn’t get overly excited by them.
Ariel asked:
You wrote that if there really is no alternative explanation, then it can be attributed to divine providence. Did I understand correctly? In other words, in your view are there cases of providence even nowadays?
My answer:
I’m open to all possibilities. It seems to me that usually there is no active divine involvement. But if someone brings me evidence, I hope I’ll be honest enough to admit that there is. What I wrote was that the claim of involvement carries weight if there is no reasonable alternative explanation.