Does God Play With Dice?

[Richca]

Calvin believed not a drop of rain falls without the express command of God. The atheist believes everything is ultimately due to Chance. The truth lies between the two extremes…

I believe Calvin is correct here. For a drop of rain has being and existence and every being, whatever the mode of its being, must be derived and caused from the First Being. Being is God’s proper effect as he is Being itself. God also preserves every being in existence at every moment.
Accordingly, Jesus said “for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).

And in Job "He says to the snow, “Fall to the earth”;
likewise to his heavy, drenching rain…The clouds too are laden with moisture,
the storm-cloud scatters its light.
He it is who changes their rounds, according to his plans,
to do all that he commands them
across the inhabited world. (Job 37: 6, 11-12).

Again “Lightning and hail, snow and thick clouds,
storm wind that fulfills his command” (Psalm 148:8)

Not only does God command the rains to fall on the earth but he also knows the number of the raindrops that do fall just as Jesus said “every hair on your head has been counted.”

 

[Richca]

David Hume was a sceptic but he realised that the laws of nature cannot possibly ensure that there are no accidents or misfortunes. They are the inevitable consequence of life on a planet where there are an immense number of creatures pursuing different goals. No one has ever produced a feasible blueprint of an earthly Utopia for the simple reason that an earthly Utopia is a naive fantasy. The Catechism sums up the solution succinctly:

I think the garden in which God placed Adam and Eve before they sinned was a utopia, it is called the garden of paradise. I think such a garden in which God placed Adam and Eve is only fitting to God’s goodness, the purpose he had in creating and especially human beings who have an eternal destiny. We can also mention the fact that human beings stand at the pinnacle of the material creation and the whole of the material creation is meant to serve mankind and help him to his eternal destiny as well as to show forth the glory of God for us to contemplate.

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

I think the garden in which God placed Adam and Eve before they sinned was a utopia, it is called the garden of paradise. I think such a garden in which God placed Adam and Eve is only fitting to God’s goodness, the purpose he had in creating and especially human beings who have an eternal destiny. We can also mention the fact that human beings stand at the pinnacle of the material creation and the whole of the material creation is meant to serve mankind and help him to his eternal destiny as well as to show forth the glory of God for us to contemplate.

I want to reply to your longer post but this seems an apt point to begin: According your understanding of God and creation, could it be said that Adam’s original sin and the subsequent ejection of man from the garden of paradise was permitted for a greater good than would have been achieved had Adam and Eve not sinned and remained there?

 

[Richca]

I want to reply to your longer post but this seems an apt point to begin: According your understanding of God and creation, could it be said that Adam’s original sin and the subsequent ejection of man from the garden of paradise was permitted for a greater good than would have been achieved had Adam and Eve not sinned and remained there?

The CCC#412 says: But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds, “Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon’s envy had taken away.” and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “There is nothing to prevent human nature’s being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more’; and the Exsultet sings, ‘O happy fault,. . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!’”

God draws good out of evil and so we sing as #412 says “O happy fault,. . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”

And the evil of Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, and death is the salvation and redemption of the entire human race. The cross of Christ is our glory as St Paul says “may I never boast except in the cross of Christ.”

 

[tonyrey]

David Hume was a sceptic but he realised that the laws of nature cannot possibly ensure that there are no accidents or misfortunes. They are the inevitable consequence of life on a planet where there are an immense number of creatures pursuing different goals. No one has ever produced a feasible blueprint of an earthly Utopia for the simple reason that an earthly Utopia is a naive fantasy. The Catechism sums up the solution succinctly:

The world was utopian from a moral but not physical point of view. The problem of moral evil didn’t exist but there were physical disasters - that are confirmed by scientific evidence. Although human beings stand at the pinnacle of the material creation other forms of life are precious and not to be despised or illtreated. Jesus told us that not a sparrow falls without the Father’s knowledge. Why would he mention that if God doesn’t care what happens to them? Nevertheless sacrifice is at the heart of life and it is another aspect of the inevitability of death which Jesus accepted not as a curse but a blessing. If we lived on this planet forever there would be no escape from our physical limitations. As you point out, material creation helps us to our eternal destiny: it is a vital stage of our development but not our final destination. Life on earth has its own intrinsic value and shouldn’t be regarded as an ordeal to be overcome as soon as possible. We are superior to the angels by virtue of our physicality but not of course necessarily morally or spiritually superior. Every mode of existence has its own advantages and limitations because only God is perfect in every respect.