>I agree completely. Many Calvinists are determinists, e.g. And many others
>who see (erroneously, I think) the only alternative to determinism wrt
>action to be randomness. (That may be the only scientifically viable
>alternative, right now anyway; but philosophically other options are open, a
>point on which Calvinists agree, at least wrt God.)
I would like to jump in here. randomness and determinism are united in
nonlinear systems. Sierpinski's gasket which I cite often is produced by
rolling the dice and moving a dot towards 1 of 3 dots, depending upon the
roll of the dice. The motion of dot is completely random, yet, if the dot
marks every spot it lands in as it is tossed about to and fro by the whims
of chance, it will produce the beautiful set of inscribed triangles as seen
on my web page
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/sier.gif
There is a third alternative, chance + rules = determinism. All God has to
do to know our fate is to have a universal set of rules applied to our
lives and we will produce what he wants with our lives, whether we want to
or not.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
Lots of information on creation/evolution
