Is the Quran’s Mathematical Miracle a Coincidence?
Pennsylvania Lottery - 666
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Pennsylvania_Lottery_scandal
On the night of April 24, 1980, more than six million viewers tuned in to the Pennsylvania lottery to watch The Daily Number to find out the winning three numbers for the $3.5 million jackpot.
Since the money drawn in by the lottery was for the benefit of senior citizens they would have a senior citizen draw the numbers and on that day they drew the numbers 6, 6, 6.
So what?
A large number of winners than normal?
So what?
Lottery authorities and local bookmakers became suspicious when they noticed that a large number of tickets were purchased for the eight possible combinations all involving the numbers 4 and 6.
So what?
They found out that the 4 & 6 balls of the drawing were lighter than the other digits at the time of the drawing that the other digits were covered in a thick latex to make them heavier.
So what?
They got a tip from a bar that there were two brothers going from shop to shop purchasing large quantities of lottery tickets in combinations of 4 & 6.
So what?
Well at one of the bars that they bought tickets they made a phone call from the payphone to the studio that was doing the drawing.
So what?
The bartender said it sounded like the person was speaking Greek, and the host of the lottery drawing, Nick Perry happened to also speak Greek.
So what?
When the brothers were questioned they saw that they had a previous vending machine business with the announcer of the lottery, Nick Perry.
So what?
The brothers confessed that the idea was Nick Perry’s
So what?
They found the latex paint in Nick Perry’s studio that was used to weigh down the other digits of the balls for the drawing.
So what?
Nick Perry and the brothers all confessed to the crime…
So what?
Everything in the investigation points to the fact that the drawing was rigged. No sensible person would attribute all these coincidences to pure luck e.g. there are so many lotteries and this just happens to be the one that had a high rate of participants pick numbers eerily close to the winning numbers and a large number of individuals claim to win.
When determining if an event is random or by design, we need to investigate
No different than when police investigating a death - they need to determine was the death caused by natural causes or was there foul play
Probability alone is not a reason to suspect design
Coin Flip
If I flip a coin 50 times in a row
That outcome of heads and tails is incredibly rare such that it probably never happened before in the history of the universe, but there is no significance to that outcome it is purely random
In order to prove that something is not just random, but by design there is a term known as Specified Complexity
Specified complexity is when an event is not only statistically unlikely but the significance of that event occurring is also relevant
Here is an example…
I preemptively obtain a random series of 50 coin flips and am told that I am to flip a coin 50 times that unless I get this exact outcome of heads in tails in the exact order my life will be terminated.
So to my amazement, I flip the coin and obtain that exact outcome and my life is spared.
Is it more likely that I just got really lucky or that the outcome of the coin flip was designed to give that outcome, or that perhaps I just lied and said that I got the same outcome?
This event would posses specified complexity and point towards design
License Plate
Here is another example, a real one from my life
I was in college in a retail parking lot and see a car swerving around the corner driving faster than they should be in a public parking lot.
I look at the plate and see it says CATHUGS
I am thinking I am in California
The car does seem a little beat down and could be driven by a thug
So assume that the plate was not randomly generated by the DMV as it the letters are not just random but point towards things of significance
But