Mark I. Vuletic

Last updated 21 March 2008

Analysis

(i) It probably is not possible to prove that humanity was not predestined, since for all we know a sufficiently powerful and meticulous deity might be able to exploit chaotic dynamics or work under the shroud of quantum probabilities to channel the evolution of life down a specific path.

(ii) There are people who argue that certain facts about the universe make the evolution of creatures like humans (though perhaps not exactly like humans) inevitable, even without the benefit of divine direction; if this is true, then a deity could have predestined creatures similar to us simply by having set down the laws of nature as we find them. The respects in which such creatures might appear different from us would be of no theological consequence unless one takes being made "in the image of God" to mean that God actually looks like us.