[jpg7n16]

You started your post on a kind of odd topic. The Pope "blessing" the flock and "praying" for our soldiers mean different things to different people. I'm a Christian and I believe that the Pope "blesses" as a symbol of his care for the people of the church. It isn't neccessarily a prayer. Some people pray that our soldiers will win... some pray that their fathers will return from Iraq. One is a "prayer" of hope for the good of the nation... that I believe God is moderately concerned with. The other is a sincere request regarding a loved one. I believe God takes that one seriously and that such prayers are actually answered by God.

Wierd poker example since I know the people of this forum can relate: Harrington on Hold'Em pg 33-34 is titled "The Hidden Luck Factor in No-Limit Hold'Em" He spends the pages listing out a very different set of events from him changing his one pre-flop decision. He calls this a "hugely lucky (but invisible) swing for everyone concerned.

I think non-believers have large tendency to do just what he talks about in this section: they acknowledge the obvious good (or more often bad) "luck" but fail to see the hidden "luck" that God orchestrates every day. Can God cause the wind to blow towards a soldier so that he can smell an approaching enemy and hide (or shoot) and live to see his family again? Of course... but these small changes often go unnoticed by people who only want to see a god who completes their back-door flushes.

As for your other question... the passage is fairly well known and speaks about what you asked, and I can't say it any better. I'll quote your question:

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But what about those who are not sure one way or the other? More precisely what about those who believe that there is only a pretty good possibility that there is such a god out there? (Some of those people will not admit their serious doubts for Pascal Wager reasons. But they still have them.) Are they subjected to the same punishments as out and out non believers?

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John 3:16-18
16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."