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There is a term I have heard from younger Christians; Godincidence. An event that seems to go beyond a chance explanation. Here is an example by A.S.A. Jones:
Now one of my examples happened just last week. My son's job often takes him on the road and I call him most every day. Last Friday before I hung up I told him to be careful driving home. I never say this. When I hung up, I wondered to myself why I did say that - and, as reported later, so did my son. Anyway, coming off one of our major highways the break line blew out on his truck and he lost all breaking ability. He was able to to finally roll to a stop, but he was safe. This seems like more than coincidence to me.
Last year, I was at a party in the midst of a large crowd of people and I casually glanced over to a small group. A man got out of his chair and started walking to another table. I had never seen the man before and I only saw him for a total of 4 seconds or so, but for some reason, the thought entered my mind that he was a child molester. I have no idea what caused me to think this; I never knowingly had met a child molester before, but an alarm went off in my head. I wasn't aware of anything about the man that I had seen that would warrant thinking this of him - I had only seen him walk from one table to another, and I had witnessed no interaction between him and any other person. I chastised myself for thinking such horrid and unfounded thoughts about a person. The next day, I received a phone call from the host of the party. He said, "We're going to have to be careful with the kids. I have to tell you something about one of the people who was there, yesterday."
I blurted out, "Don't tell me! I know exactly what you're going to say!" He confirmed my initial suspicion.
A skeptic may read the above and immediately think that I am insinuating that I can identify child molesters on sight. This is not what I am saying. Also, had I been the type of person who sees a child molester in half of the people they meet, it would have been only a matter of time before I managed to identify the real thing. However, I know exactly how I felt, I know that I don't usually go around thinking such things and I know the amount of data to which I was exposed. Because I know that my experience was legitimate, and because I accept that other people share these types of experiences, I can only conclude that our brains acquire information of which we aren't even aware, and use this information in a manner that goes beyond our usual thought processes. It is the uncomfortable idea of not being able to intelligently give reasons for our perceptions that tempt us to reject them. Had my friend not brought up the subject, I would have never mentioned my experience for fear that people would think I was strange.
http://web.archive.org/web/200602091...d-is-real.html
I blurted out, "Don't tell me! I know exactly what you're going to say!" He confirmed my initial suspicion.
A skeptic may read the above and immediately think that I am insinuating that I can identify child molesters on sight. This is not what I am saying. Also, had I been the type of person who sees a child molester in half of the people they meet, it would have been only a matter of time before I managed to identify the real thing. However, I know exactly how I felt, I know that I don't usually go around thinking such things and I know the amount of data to which I was exposed. Because I know that my experience was legitimate, and because I accept that other people share these types of experiences, I can only conclude that our brains acquire information of which we aren't even aware, and use this information in a manner that goes beyond our usual thought processes. It is the uncomfortable idea of not being able to intelligently give reasons for our perceptions that tempt us to reject them. Had my friend not brought up the subject, I would have never mentioned my experience for fear that people would think I was strange.
http://web.archive.org/web/200602091...d-is-real.html
Now one of my examples happened just last week. My son's job often takes him on the road and I call him most every day. Last Friday before I hung up I told him to be careful driving home. I never say this. When I hung up, I wondered to myself why I did say that - and, as reported later, so did my son. Anyway, coming off one of our major highways the break line blew out on his truck and he lost all breaking ability. He was able to to finally roll to a stop, but he was safe. This seems like more than coincidence to me.
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