The Sea of Japan
Probability Regardless of Past Results
The probability to get the number one on a cast die is one-sixth or 1/6.
It does not change no matter what results we got in preceding trials. However, the probability to get the number one in each of three trials made continually is 1/6 X 1/6 X 1/6 = 1/216. It is less than 0.005 or 0.5%. Yet, the probability to get the number one on the cast die in the third trial is still 1/6, which is about 0.17 or 17%.
The probability of 0.5% is only meaningful when taking into account all the three trials, but 17% is meaningful when counting only one trial or the third trial alone. And after the third trial, when counting preceding two trials together, this 17% is found to be also the factor causing the rare event of three successive number ones, whose probability is 0.5%.
[X] [X] [1]...17%, or once in six trials
[1] [1] [1]...0.5%, or once in 216 trials
Likewise, the probability to get the number one in each of 99 trials with a die made continually is 1/6 X ... X 1/6 = 1/(6^99) = 1 X 10^(-77), which is almost zero in ordinary perception.
However, the probability in the 100th trial to get the number one on the cast die is one-sixth.
So, when people do not know the past 99 trials in each of which the number one was obtained, it does not look like a miracle that the number one has appeared in the 100th trial.
The probability to get the number one successively in all the 100 trials is (1/6)^100 = 1 X 10^(-78) or 10 to the minus 78th power which is almost zero in ordinary perception. But, the probability in the 100th trial to get the number one on the cast die is 1/6 or one-sixth regardless of the results of the preceding 99 trials, which does not look like a miracle to anybody.
So, sometimes people do not realize that a miracle is happening, only because they do not know past records. They will think that the die has ordinarily showed the one on its surface while a miracle is happening as the one has appeared on the surface of the die 100 times continually.
In the situation that the one has appeared on a cast die continually twice, an event with the probability of 0.5% may happen still at the probability 1/6 = 17%. In the situation that the one has appeared on a cast die continually 99 times, an event with the probability of 10 to the minus 78th power, which is almost zero, may still happen at the probability of 1/6 = 17%.
Regardless of past results, the probability that the one appears on a cast die is always 1/6 = 17%. But this 17% might sometimes mean a miracle.
If Christ Jesus had had power to interfere with past records, it should have been no wonder that He could always perform a miracle.
If we have great faith, God might interfere with past records for us, and a miracle might occur even by us who can only make an event happen at an ordinary probability.
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M'r:2:28: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
M'r:3:1: And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
M'r:3:2: And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.
M'r:3:3: And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.
M'r:3:4: And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
M'r:3:5: And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.