Synchronicity, Prayer, and Meteors

Since no one commented on my prior post on real astronomy, maybe y'all are more interested in speculative religious astronomy. To wit, a Meridian Magazine post entitled Synchronicity as a Sign. It includes the provocative question, "Can a meteor be an answer to prayer?" Sorry, rocks are just whirling around the Sun following their prescribed gravitational paths, and every so often (quite often, actually) one plummets through Earth's atmosphere and is momentarily visible. It's not an answer to prayer, it's just physics. Even if you are looking at the sky with a query in your mind when it happens, it's still just physics.

Now I know there are some "God is in the hurricane" folks out there in the Bloggernacle. I'm not trying to trouble your way of looking at the world. And I know there might be some visitors who have viewed an image of the Virgin Mary in a loaf of bread or in a rock formation in the nearby hills. I'm not trying to trouble your way of looking at the world either. And any stray Pagans or Wiccans who see the position of the Moon, planets, and stars as deep and significant omens affecting life here on planet Earth, same thing. You folks just go on with life.

More seriously, there are sound theological reasons for rejecting the "God is in the hurricane" doctrine (or the "God is in the meteor" doctrine). I won't belabour the issue, but here are a few points that leap to mind. Jesus said we shouldn't seek after signs, and that the only sign we would be given was the Resurrection. Jesus said (when tempted by Satan to be party to a convincing sign) that we should not tempt God. Elijah was shown that God was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the "sound of thin hush" (essentially silence). Even modern revelation makes it clear signs don't produce faith (see D&C 5:7-8; catch the allusion in the wording of 5:8 to the reproof Jesus gave to those in his day who sought for a sign). I think an argument can be made that most contemporary sign-seeking is just a desire to abdicate responsibility for making our own decisions.

A more general discussion might address the topic raised in the essay: Synchronicity, is it a valid principle or just spurious correlation of unrelated events? Fun topic. Google "synchronicity Mormon" and you get two hits to DMI, but I'm definitely not endorsing the principle. Not unless I see a meteor tonight.

Comments

[Matt W.]

John Pratt just sort of makes me sad.

[Dave]

Well, his bio says he has a PhD in astronomy, so he undoubtedly knows a lot about the subject. He just puts the pieces together a little differently than I do.

[Jared]

Oh yeah, hokey is better.

It seems to me that if you believe that God can communicate with man, such as through promptings, then you have to allow for some synchronicity. Certainly it is easy to justify coincidences in retrospect, and then there is confirmation bias, and so forth...

[Dave]

As if on cue, FMH posted on the same topic: Natural Disasters - God's Punishment? Could this be ... synchronicity?

[John Remy]

If synchronicity is "meaningful coincidence," where does the "meaning" come from? I know people who are really into tarot cards and I Ching, and they make all kinds of connections between the apparent randomness of the cards/sticks and life events.

Humans are very good at finding patterns, and I suspect that they tend to find the meanings that reinforce their particular approach to the world. To Mormons, the destruction of the original dome on the St. George Temple (by lighting) reinforced Brigham Young's prophetic mantle; to anti-Mormon Evangelicals, the lightning strike on the Moroni on the San Diego temple was a sign of God's denunciation of the Mormons.

[Dave]

John, I tried to find an article online giving details of the alleged San Diego Temple lightning strike -- the closest I could come was this interesting essay noting that the Moroni spire atop the temple incorporates a lightning rod. The essay, which appears to be written by a UCSD architecture student, compares the architecture and design of the San Diego Temple to the cathedral at Chartres.

[Jon in Austin]

Lightning did put the Moroni on top of the Mt. Timpanogos temple out of action back in 01 or 02. I remember seeing a picture of the replacement one being put on in the Church News (back when that was the only way of getting info as a missionary in Brazil.)

[Jack]

I used to be one of those who went gaga over every little coincidence--believing that god was checking me every step of the way. Fortunately I've learned to see how miserable that kind of mysticism can be.

Still--

There are some things I wonder at. For example--as it relates to astronomy--what of the apparent size of the sun and moon from our vantage point? They are the same size in the siderial heavens. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I'm certanly open to the idea "signs" when something so unlikely occures on such a grand scale.

It seems to me that signs may be in place but ineffective until they are recognized as such by the eye of faith.

[John Remy]

Hmmmm...I can't find an article about the lightning, but Jana and I were involved in the SD temple dedication and remember the story going around at the time (from both the LDS and anti-Mormon perspectives). We heard that the incident was why the lightning rod was added to the rebuilt Moroni.

[Matt W.]

This has been mulling around in the back of my head, and Synchronocity, as interpreted as being the rigth person, in the right place, at the right time, makes a lot of sense in many miracle accounts.

I just don't know if I am willing to extend it to "Uranus testifies of Christ."

[Jack]

Matt W.,

Nor would I extend it to "a black hole..."