WAB
Veteran Member
The whole business about "the elect" is more or less exclusive to Calvinists, isn't it? I know that covers a number of denominations, but still, I don't think it's fair to paint all Christians with this broad brush.
Actually, if one believes in a temporally omniscient god, god already knows who the "winners and losers" are. All that has to be done then is to replace the losers with agents who play the role the losers would have played.
This is actually an interesting theory, which has been talked about for years: Maybe we're in a super-advanced game or program, and the 'suffering masses' are just sprites that haven't really suffered, we just think they have, from our perspective.
Of course, this is a grave and colossal insult to the millions of real individuals who have suffered throughout humanity's ugly history. If this is a game, I would sure like to know it. I won't treat it as a game unless and until I wake up in a vat somewhere, and KNOW I'm in a vat.