Chance - excuses us from all responsibility. What happens by chance is exempt from rhyme or reason.

James R. Newman,

"The whole concept of chance is only a eupemism for ignorance."

Phillip Morrison,

"Chance and cause have been wonderfully married into a point of view in which precise pattern governs potential events, and yet in which the variety of potentialities allows the full growth of that novelty which we know to govern the world we live in."

Henri Ponticaire,

"Fortuitous phenomena are, by definition those whose laws we do not know."

Albert Einstein,

"God does not play dice."

Beyond the certainties of death and taxes, few aspects of our lives elude the touch of chance. An unpredictable grouping of genes determine our physical make-up. An unplanned encounter may decide our choice of mate or a job. An inadvertent misstep may land us in a hospital, a random pick of a sweepstakes winner may land us in a new income bracket.

Ecclesiastes, "...time and chance happeneth."

Unable to control chance, we do the next best thing: we try to evaluate the likelihood of the occurence of a particular event. We pepper our talk with the adverbs of contigency: "usually...probably...perhaps."

Everytime we contemplate an event that is not yet accomplished fact, or whose outcome is beyond our influence, we automatically make an estimate of chance.

18th Century mechanistic determinism

Does anybody believe in chance? Or is their a reason for all occurances?