>From: Moorad Alexanian <alexanian@uncwil.edu>
> Howard, the difficulty with your three points is that it is true that if one
> rolls a die and the outcomes are truly random and if the outcomes 1,2, 3,
> and 4 are for the house (Casino) and 5 and 6 for the players, then the
> outcome is in favor of the house over many rolls. The trouble is that if
> one applies that to the whole of Creation then the death of an individual
> person is a matter of the odds and can have no other significance.
We live daily in a world in which we are placed in one "probability pool"
after another. Choose to fly on an airplane, drive a car, be a smoker, etc.
Members of each pool accept a probability of death by that chosen
membership. I do not believe that God has a specified plan for who dies
when.
However, I see no way whatsoever to connect that fact with your next
assertion that the death of an individual "can have no other significance."
To me, that's a non sequitur.
> I thought
> God knew even the number of hairs in our heads??? Moorad
Contrary to some strands of traditional Christian thought, and frequent
repetitions thereof, I see our life experience permeated with authentic
contingency. Things happen. We celebrate some happenings; we grieve others.
In regard to events in our future, unpredictable
options abound. Until these events in our future actually happen, they are
not knowable, not even, I believe, by God (unless God exercises all such
options by divine pre-determination).
So, perhaps God knows the number of hairs on my head at a specific time
today (a declining number, I suspect), but not the number I will have a year
from now. That number is but one drop in a (shrinking) bucket of authentic
contingencies.
Howard Van Till
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