[Mempho]

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Thanks for your defense on the prior thread.

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You're welcome. I'm mean to idiots, not necessarily to Christians [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Yes. I think that while its not individually about statistics, it could be quantified statistically using a given population.

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Philosophically, this is a major problem. If free will has a random element, but is also influenced by other factors thus making it probabilistic, then I believe that it follows logically that God is unjust.

Here is why:

Obviously a deterministic model would prove God's injustice. If people were created with the knowledge (and therefore, the intent) on God's behalf that they would end up in one place or the other with no hope for intervention, then God is certainly unjust. This would be akin to God dealing someone the losing hand in poker; the man has no hope to win, and is destined to lose.

But there are still problems with a probabilistic model. Some people, through no fault of their own, are far more likely to believe in Jesus, while others are not given such a chance. In the scenario you described, it seems that some drug addicts are "unlucky" and don't encounter a series of incidents that cause them to be as likely to wisen up and accept Christ as other drug addicts who did get to survive traumatic experiences. Neither one has control over their circumstances; only God does.

Thus it would seem that God deals some of us AA, while he deals others 72o.

If this is the case, then God cannot be called just.

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I don't think that anyone can look at life as it exists on earth and determine that it's fair. I think that is made clear in the Bible. I certainly hope, however, that the determination of one's place in the afterlife is fair.