Wednesday, Jan. 25
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

The Odds Must Be Crazy: Coincidence as a root of superstition

Have you ever had the strangest thing happen to you that just seemed to be too big of a coincidence to be, well, a coincidence? Have you ever picked up the phone to call a friend only to inexplicably be answering a call from them?

At this Wednesday’s Café Inquiry, skeptic investigators Wendy Hughes and Jarrett Kaufman will explore these and many more types of coincidences or strange phenomena which happen every day that puzzle and confuse us.

Coincidences just seem too crazy to have really happened by pure chance alone. But believe it or not, when you look at the huge number of people in the world, and the absurd number of things we do each day, it would actually be far stranger if these types of things weren’t happening. But that doesn’t make it any less exciting when they do, and there are a lot of coincidences that go well beyond the simple examples given above.

That’s the focus of their blog “The Odds Must Be Crazy.” In conjunction with the Independent Investigations Group (IIG), the goal is to collect and entertain with these very everyday occurrences that seem anything but ordinary. As the collection increases, they will get a better idea of just how incredibly strange the world is in which we live, and how people and events can connect in all sorts of seemingly unexpected ways - even if statisticians or psychologists can explain what’s really going on.

Wendy and Jarrett, Steering Committee members of IIG who created the blog, will give an overview of “The Odds Must Be Crazy,” and then open up the floor to discussion of these everyday oddities.

Wendy is a longtime volunteer of CFI-Los Angeles, and has been a member of IIG for at least six years. Jarrett is a self-described washed-up actor, a know-it-all, a liberal, an atheist, a cyber geek, a video gamer, a technology specialist, and a great deal more, and became a Steering Member of the IIG one year after joining the grassroots skepticism group. The IIG investigates fringe science, paranormal and extraordinary claims from a rational, scientific viewpoint, and disseminates factual information about such inquiries to the public.

To read the stories, and to contribute your own coincidence story, visit www.theoddsmustbecrazy.com
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Cafe Inquiry is our monthly casual get-together where you can have a coffee and chat with other people on various topics of science and religion. A guest speaker opens the discussion with a brief intro to the subject and then the floor is open. All are welcome!

Held in the Steve Allen Theater lobby at CFI-L.A.

The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles • 4773 Hollywood Blvd. • Hollywood, CA 90027
2 blocks west of Vermont at Berendo • map