Spiritual Coincidences

By coincidence I came across Richard Dawkins' Book 'The God Delusion' in a Charity Shop in Tenerife, a place I would not normally be seen dead in'. I was compelled to buy it for £1. Having read it, I was 'compelled' to consider coincidences in my life (I am 78) and wrote about them as a response4 to the book. I was surprised how many there were. One in particular was a reencounter when I was 23. My father was a captain in the Church Army and from childhood we were close friends staying at Thornbury on the Isle of Wight with the family of another Church Army officer. Both worked in the prison service. We lost touch and shortly before I qualified as an Architect in Leeds I had an opportunity as a student to visit the City of Durham and arranged to visit the family. I only had a rough idea where they lived. Getting off a bus in a housing estate I had no idea which house they lived in and decided to make an enquiry at random at the only house that was lit by an outside light. It happened to be their house. Coincidence? Apparently my parents had tried to contact me to contact me in Glasgow where I had been studying to tell me not to go. The door was answered by the Church Army Captain's daughter who told me that her father had just died. I was shown into the study and told that her mother with whom years previously as a child I had been quite close to would join me after she had composed herself. She didn't break down and her words were, 'God Has sent You', simply confirming her faith. What were the chances of that happening? I was convinced that I had failed my thesis as colleagues had produced far more impressive stuff than I had so I took to going out for long walks whereupon I came across a clump of four leaf clover. Perhaps there was a 'Chance?' I found twelve eight of which I gave away as good luck charms and four of which I 'stuck' in a leather bound bible given to me by an elderly couple at my christening. I practiced as an Architect for thirty five years maintaining my own faith. These are only two of the 'coincidences' I have recorded as a result of reading professor Dawkins' book who is convinced that there is no God because he cannot find proof of the existence of God or determine what God is or what God might be. I have not come across any mathematical approach to determine the existence of God or the intelligence that lies behind the creation..... Therefor I cannot find any evidence for the denial of faith. The document that I called 'Doxology' was written as a consequence of the chance finding of Richard Dawkins' book in the charity shop in Tenerife. There have been many coincidences that have given my life a sense of direction. John Wardle