OPEN LETTER TO RICHARD DAWKINS
Dear Mr. Dawkins
I have read a number of your books, and I love them. It must be more than 30 years since I first read ”The Selfish Gene.” I think of myself as scientific-minded. Evidence is, of course, much more important than belief.
However, I have experienced some bizarre coincidences in my life that don’t fit into a rational, naturalistic worldview. I am convinced that some coincidences are genuine paranormal phenomena, but I cannot prove I am right. Meaningful coincidences cannot be studied with scientific methods because we cannot create them on demand. They are rare phenomena, and we cannot reproduce them in laboratories.
Those who have experienced a paranormal coincidence know what I am talking about. And those who have never had any such experiences, or never noticed them or rejected them, will think that I am just one of those nutcases indulging in nonsense.
I may have deceived myself; delusions are common. But what if my paranormal coincidence experiences are not delusions? And what if some of the many other such stories people tell are true accounts of actual events? How can we find out? And how shall we interpret these observations? Shall we explain them away? Shall we give them a psychological explanation? Shall we use statistics and say that strange things sometimes happen in this world? Shall we ignore these stories? Shall we disavow experiences that we cannot explain?
Discussing a paranormal coincidence story with mainstream people, religious people, or scientifically minded people is often a waste of time. Their completely different takes on this subject are ossified. They already know everything about it, which is why sincere people who have experienced mystic coincidences avoid talking about them.
