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Three dollars

SherryA

Unregistered
S
For my work I do research into religious rituals, places, and ways. Whenever I go to any meeting where a plate is passed, I always give a token amount usually a five dollar bill. Now, I should say that at one time, many years previously, when I was more religious, I bought into the mystical notion that you "got back" what you gave. I no longer believe this. I look at my small gift as the least I can do because I am in effect spying on the groups I visit. I am in effect paying (a pretty paltry amount) for what I am learning from them.

Back in the summer I attended a tent revival. I wasn't terribly happy with the proceedings--the evangelist was slick and manipulative-- but when they passed the plate, I looked in my purse for a five dollar bill. I had only 20 dollars bills and three one dollar bills. I wasn't about to give 20, so I gave three, being a little unsure whether I should even give that little bit. I actually put it back in my wallet and took it out again. Well, I thought to myself, I know I won't get it back, but it's such a small amount I won't miss it.

The next day I was walking on Main Street. At the last minute I decided to cross the road at a different spot. There on the sidewalk was an envelope with exactly three one dollar bills in it. If I still retained my former beliefs, I would have sworn this was God or the universe telling me that, in fact, we do get back what we give, that there are above-the-natural forces operating in the world.

I am a critical thinker and I know there is a naturalistic explanation. It is most certainly a matter of odds. Still I would like the input of some of your sharp minds. SherryA.
 
HEY! That's MY three bucks! I had it in an envelope and must have dropped it on Main street last summer! GIVE IT BACK!
 
Okay, Joe Sixpack. I'm willing to handle this situation soberly. Are you?

IDENTIFY the three dollars, if you insist they are yours. Who, for instance, is pictured on the front of each of the dollar bills? What, if any, emblem or edifice is pictured on the back? What color are the bills? WHAT MATERIAL ARE THESE PARTICULAR BILLS MADE OF????

Answer correctly and I'll send you the three dollars plus three percent interest. ----SherryA.
 
SherryA said:
For my work I do research into religious rituals, places, and ways. Whenever I go to any meeting where a plate is passed, I always give a token amount usually a five dollar bill. Now, I should say that at one time, many years previously, when I was more religious, I bought into the mystical notion that you "got back" what you gave. I no longer believe this. I look at my small gift as the least I can do because I am in effect spying on the groups I visit. I am in effect paying (a pretty paltry amount) for what I am learning from them.

Back in the summer I attended a tent revival. I wasn't terribly happy with the proceedings--the evangelist was slick and manipulative-- but when they passed the plate, I looked in my purse for a five dollar bill. I had only 20 dollars bills and three one dollar bills. I wasn't about to give 20, so I gave three, being a little unsure whether I should even give that little bit. I actually put it back in my wallet and took it out again. Well, I thought to myself, I know I won't get it back, but it's such a small amount I won't miss it.

The next day I was walking on Main Street. At the last minute I decided to cross the road at a different spot. There on the sidewalk was an envelope with exactly three one dollar bills in it. If I still retained my former beliefs, I would have sworn this was God or the universe telling me that, in fact, we do get back what we give, that there are above-the-natural forces operating in the world.

I am a critical thinker and I know there is a naturalistic explanation. It is most certainly a matter of odds. Still I would like the input of some of your sharp minds. SherryA.
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My grandfather, whom I once respected greatly, then thought was a nutty woo, and have come full circle to respecting greatly again, was a strong believer in the tides of giving.

I've somewhat become one also but not [necessarily] for religious reasons (certainly not spiritual ones). I think the system works not because you gave specifically but because you are a an extra penny in the process of charity that serves (somehow) to encourage others to do likewise. You become Yet Another Somebody that also gave, as it were.

Of course, if you remove intention and supreme being from the workings, as I have, what goes along with that is the possibility that you might give (be it money, time, or even thought) to the wrong cause. It still can come back to you but not necessarily in a welcomed way.
 
So, Rob, are you saying that my finding the three dollars might have been in some way paranormal? ---SherryA.
 
If there was a God, and if he wanted to show you something, he could send a beautiful angel to give you back your 3 dollars and say in a straightforward way that you get back whatever you give. Or he could choose a more elegant way, like depositing 3 dollars in your bank account under the symbolic name of "Jesus God".

I'm disappointed when I think how people seek a paranormal explanation when strange coincidences happen, while they never stop to think about the absence of strange coincidences that their life is so full of. If you give 3 dollars 10 times and find 3 dollars 10 times, then come back to amaze me.
 
SherryA said:
So, Rob, are you saying that my finding the three dollars might have been in some way paranormal? ---SherryA.
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No. In your particular (and all cases like yours) I'd say it was most likely a coincidence.

Your asking that question pretty much means 1)you are clueless as to what I wrote or, more likely 2) I didn't do a good job of explaining it. I choose to believe the latter until you demonstrate otherwise.

Until then, I'll give you prime example of what I'm talking about. Sometimes I help folks that are stranded on the highway. I refuse all offerings of compensation. One of these fine folk I've helped will (or might be more likely because of human nature) someday see someone stranded on the highway in a similar way and stop to help them out. One of these newly helped people may someday see me (or mine) so stranded and in a like manner stop and help.

Does that help?
 
SherryA, I will identify those dollars. The man pictured on them is some old dude with a wig and false teeth. On the back is a picture of the "all seeing eye" of the "New World Order" and the Illuminati. They are printed in green ink on papyrus.

But, now that I think of it, you should keep it. God came to me in a dream and said "Joe, I need three bucks to pay back this SherryA chick." I said "Why is that, Lord?" and he said "Oh she's one of those people who loans you a couple of bucks and then rides your ass untill you pay 'em back. Sheesh, you'd think she was broke the way she went on about it. I know for a fact she's loaded. She had a twenty in her purse she tried to hide from me." So then I said "when can you pay me back?" and he said "Now don't you start!"
 
Rob wrote:

I'm disappointed when I think how people seek a paranormal explanation when strange coincidences happen, while they never stop to think about the absence of strange coincidences that their life is so full of. If you give 3 dollars 10 times and find 3 dollars 10 times, then come back to amaze me.

SherryA writes: As am I, Rob. I hope you read my disclaimer in my first post that began this thread. I agree with you totally, and I appreciate your example to add to my skeptical repertoire. ---SherryA.
 
You're right, Joe! And you're hysterical. Thanks for the laugh! --- SherryA.
 
SherryA said:
Rob wrote:
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While I'm not Rob, I'll continue:

Let's assume there is no God. Nada. Niente. Zip. Does the absence of God mean that no 3-dollar-giver, ever, will find 3 dollars on the sidewalk ?
 
El Greco wrote:

Let's assume there is no God. Nada. Niente. Zip. Does the absence of God mean that no 3-dollar-giver, ever, will find 3 dollars on the sidewalk ?

SherryA writes: of course not. Thanks, El Greco.

P.S. to one and all: just in case I didn't make it clear in my original post, I am a professional skeptic. I appreciate all the examples you all are giving me. Illustrations are the best amunition we have.

www.sherryaustin.com
 
Below is the part of my original post I called a disclaimer:

I am a critical thinker and I know there is a naturalistic explanation. It is most certainly a matter of odds. Still I would like the input of some of your sharp minds.

(My intention was to make sure I made clear I DID NOT believe my finding the three dollars was in any way paranormal or supernatural. I wanted other forum members to treat me to their explanations and illustrations of same. Some understood what I was asking; others seemed to think I was suggesting it was paranormal, though it clearly was not.) ---SherryA.
 
Rob Lister said:
No. In your particular (and all cases like yours) I'd say it was most likely a coincidence.

Your asking that question pretty much means 1)you are clueless as to what I wrote or, more likely 2) I didn't do a good job of explaining it. I choose to believe the latter until you demonstrate otherwise.

Until then, I'll give you prime example of what I'm talking about. Sometimes I help folks that are stranded on the highway. I refuse all offerings of compensation. One of these fine folk I've helped will (or might be more likely because of human nature) someday see someone stranded on the highway in a similar way and stop to help them out. One of these newly helped people may someday see me (or mine) so stranded and in a like manner stop and help.

Does that help?
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What if the stranded stranger is a rapist, a serial killer or a thief? Then you're SOOL? You may get raped, sodomized and killed; and your family becomes traumatized for life. You gotta use Karma to explain such a thing!
 
SherryA said:
Below is the part of my original post I called a disclaimer:

I am a critical thinker and I know there is a naturalistic explanation. It is most certainly a matter of odds. Still I would like the input of some of your sharp minds.

(My intention was to make sure I made clear I DID NOT believe my finding the three dollars was in any way paranormal or supernatural. I wanted other forum members to treat me to their explanations and illustrations of same. Some understood what I was asking; others seemed to think I was suggesting it was paranormal, though it clearly was not.) ---SherryA.
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I too have trouble determining your point. I never got the impression you thought the experience had a paranormal element, but I do get the impression you think the incident was transcendantly interesting. I used to think that there was a causitive agent behind Jungian syncronicity, which is what made it seem very interesting when things like your 3-dollar-incident would occur to me. But when I learned and accepted that there was no causitive agent, the phenomena was no longer very interesting. In your disclaimer you say that you know there is a 'naturalistic explaination', and that it's a 'matter of odds'. I'm not sure what you think the 'naturalist explaination' for a coincidence is, or how you think the odds for or against the experience you described occuring could be quantified. The aspect that makes Jungian syncronicity uninteresting is that there is no causitive agent responsible for the coincidence.
 
FreeChile said:
What if the stranded stranger is a rapist, a serial killer or a thief? Then you're SOOL? You may get raped, sodomized and killed; and your family becomes traumatized for life. You gotta use Karma to explain such a thing!
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No you don't. And Rob's Pay it Forward delusion isn't valid either.
Just this winter our local news reported that a good samaritan who stopped to help a motorist stranded on the side of a snow-covered highway got run over and killed by another car. He didn't get run over because of 'bad karma', and based on witnessing that incident, the motorist he was attempting to help won't end up helping another motorist in a similar situation if he has any sense whatsoever.

If you see a motorist stranded, call highway patrol, they will send a tow truck. Doing anything more is servitude to a phantom, not to one's self. You don't need karma or delusions of grandeur to rationalize poor choices. And you certainly don't have to make poor choices and rationalize them into good choices in order to demonstrate to yourself that you're as good a samaritan as religious people claim to be.
 
Giambattista, the "naturalistic explanation" is obviously that it was only coincidence. All that about odds, etc. I learned from reading Shermer's books and others that Prometheus Press puts out.

What I believe I made perfectly clear in the statement "some of your bright young minds" is that I wanted some of your thoughts on it. Simply that. I'm surprised the humility in my request didn't resonate very well. -SherryA
 
Giambattista said:
No you don't. And Rob's Pay it Forward delusion isn't valid either.
Just this winter our local news reported that a good samaritan who stopped to help a motorist stranded on the side of a snow-covered highway got run over and killed by another car. He didn't get run over because of 'bad karma', and based on witnessing that incident, the motorist he was attempting to help won't end up helping another motorist in a similar situation if he has any sense whatsoever.

If you see a motorist stranded, call highway patrol, they will send a tow truck. Doing anything more is servitude to a phantom, not to one's self. You don't need karma or delusions of grandeur to rationalize poor choices. And you certainly don't have to make poor choices and rationalize them into good choices in order to demonstrate to yourself that you're as good a samaritan as religious people claim to be.
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I hope you realize I was being sarcastic, hence the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence. I also detected the pay-foward mentality. People who try to rationalize things this way, also end up believing the kid can "see dead people." If you know what I mean!
 
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