Its such an amazing coincidence, it must be a sign! Oh, how often have i heard those words from various persons. But guess what. Not only is it just coincidence, its often far more likely then we think. Some “amazing” coincidences:

“Our birthday is on the same day!” Imagine yourself in a room with 22 other people. Would you have thought the likelihood of two birthdays falling on the same day is more then 50%? 365 days a year. 365/365=100% chance of unique birthday. Add another person. (365/365)*(364/365)=99.7% chance of unique birthday. And another (365/365)*(364/365)*(363/365)=99.1% chance of unique birthday. Count down from 365 until every of the 23 persons is accounted for. You get (365/365)*(364/365)*(363/365)…(343/365)=49,1% chance for an unique birthday. Therefore a 50,9% chance of two birthdays coinciding.

“I dream’t it and it came true.” Assuming 5 dreams a night at 365 days a year will give us 1825 dreams per year. Since they are rooted in our mind, we may encounter talking butterflies. But both, butterflies and the ability to talk, are not new to us. Now factor in seven billion people. That’s 12.775.000.000.000 dreams dreamed per year or 35 billion dreams per day. If we give dreams a chance to come true of 0.000.001%/day that’s 35.000 dreams coming true. Per day.

“We have the same …!” Imagine you are in a room with a total stranger. Each of you is given a catalog of questions. From all the information we can disclose about ourselves there are bound to be similarities.

“Its the strangest coincidence! I met someone today. He also has a sibling named Chris and both our favourite food is pineapple.”

The human mind has a tendency to overemphasize the meaning of coincidence. Its an evolutionary trait. We evolved as pattern seeking animals. Seeing a pattern where non exists, is much healthier then failing to spot a pattern where one is. Its called a “false positive” or “type 1 error”. Coincidence is just that. Coincidence. And coincidence becomes much more likely, when you factor in greater numbers. There is nothing divine about it.