Random (Agnosticism)

by romansh , Sunday, December 27, 2015, 16:47 (3035 days ago)
edited by romansh, Sunday, December 27, 2015, 17:27

https://www.random.org/randomness/-The above gives a quick simple review of random.-Quite often here we seem to be discussing random with respect to evolution. I get a sense we don't have a good idea of what random is or is not. To be fair I am not completely comfortable either.-For example when we say certain aspects of evolution are not random (due to chance) do we really mean a [insert flavour here] god did it?-We use a whole bunch of different words for random ... chance, indeterministic, probabilistic, stochastic, chaotic are a few that immediately come to mind. Yet all of these are compatible with simple cause and effect, though we may have to point to quantum phenomena when we look at some outcomes.-So when we say something cannot be due to chance are we ruling out cause and effect?