Reply To: Spiritual atheist.

[Simon Mathews]

@simonpaynton – That is a good answer as it contains no woo and is straightforward. I agree with the part that the act of shuffling the cards will result in a different configuration for each person, which could be said to be a reflection of their part in the grand cause and effect scheme of things. I can even understand that if the symbols on the cards have a subliminal psychological effect it could cause different people to shuffle them in different ways that reflect their response to particular symbols. For example, if a symbol was of Death someone might subconsciously shuffle that away from them.

The bit I find hard to buy is that this complex web of cause and effect going on at the shuffler’s hand/brain/card configuration level could ever be interpreted to indicate life events such as which romantic partner they would have or whether or not they may travel abroad, for example. There is not enough physical information in the configuration of the cards (however much this configuration is dependent on the psychology of the shuffler) to predict things that have massively complex antecedents.

For me, it’s much more likely that the “experienced reader” is an experienced reader of people and no more needs the cards to make the statements they do than Dumbo needs his feather to fly.