Re: Cardinal

Bill Hamilton wrote:
>Craig mentioned in his earlier letter an important distinction: between
>apparently random and random. Even purposeful actions can appear random if they
>are carried out by another intellect (another person or God). After 32 years of
>marriage I can predict some of my wife' reactions and actions, but not all.
>Davenport and Root's book on Random Signals and Noise (ca 1960) gives several
>rationales for treating certain processesin nature as random, one of them being
>that the interaction of factors that lead to the observed phenomenon is too
>complex to analyze. Certainly the influence of an omniscient intellect could
>fall into the category of factors to complex to analyze.
>

There might even be an easier analogy: gambling casinos make
lots of money off of "randomness". Certainly, God would know
how to play the odds. Hmm, didn't Einstein say "God does not
play with the dice". My Methodist roots make me abhor gambling,
but in life, there is a difference between a calculated risk
and playing into the hands of sin. Maybe some of the sturm
und drang over "randomness" stems from a confusion about the
difference between willful indulgence in a thrill, and making
the best choice in line with Christ.

by Grace alone we proceed,
Wayne
Received on Thu Jul 21 20:53:15 2005