Background

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s “Your Adventure through Mortality” uses the word random in a talk he gave in January 2018. I wanted to take some time to share what randomness means and how it relates to God’s plan and probability.

We will know that the Master Artist had a plan for those random dots all along. We will see that He amplified our talents, prepared opportunities, and introduced us to possibilities far more glorious than we ever could have imagined or accomplished on our own. I have certainly seen this in my own life.

Now he calls the dots which I believe are a metaphor for our choices random dots and that God has a plan for them from the beginning. God knows how to use that randomness to support and amplify our individual growth and His plan.

Defining randomness

I recently read two articles in the space of the philosophy of randomness. The first is from the University of Stanford and is titled, ‘Chance versus Randomness’. In ‘Chance versus Randomness’ they are carefully trying to define what random means. I liked two of their definitions;

the main feature of randomness is some degree of independence from the initial conditions. … Better still, if one performs the same experiment twice with the same initial conditions, one may get two different outcomes. Ekeland (1988: 49)

…

At the most basic level, we say an event is random if there is no way to predict its occurrence with certainty. Likewise, a random process is one for which we are not able to predict what happens next. Frigg 2004: 430

So for randomness to exist in a process, there needs to be varied possible outcomes, and current events can’t determine with certainty a future development. How could God use randomness in His plan? Is randomness necessary for the plan to work?

Randomness and God

The second article is from Science & Christian Belief and is titled, ‘The Necessity of Chance: Randomness, Purpose and the Sovereignty of God. The author has some fascinating ideas about how randomness can be the key to allowing agency and the Omni attributes to coexist. I have taken the quotes verbatim but have organized them to provide clarity for this post. I have also added a fourth component;

The specific question facing us is, ‘How can God be sovereign if random events occur?’ The answer proposed here that God can be sovereign only when random events occur, will involve a revision of what is meant by sovereignty. In this view, chance does not exist as an accidental by-product in Creation so that God has to intervene periodically (i.e., very often!) to put things right. On the contrary, God may have intentionally made a world where chance plays a positive and creative role.

1. For the present the first important thing to note is that chance leaves us morally free to act. Our actions will, of course, still have consequences and some, at least, of these may be predictable. We are however free to choose which outcomes without being constrained by the certainty of some divine intervention.
2. The second and crucial point is that since we cannot predict we cannot control God. If suffering was the result only of moral evil, God’s actions would be, in principle, predictable. Then, owing to the consistency of his nature, he would be forced to act in response to human free-willed actions or intentions. God would no longer be sovereign. It is therefore necessary that chance operates to maintain unpredictability and to prevent us from controlling God. In effect the randomness inherent in the world insulates God from us. Chance must be genuine and not just an illusory cloak behind which God can hide. God can be sovereign only when chance is real.
3. [Randomness’] insulation effect applies also to our ability to affect others by our actions. In a perfectly predictable world, determinism would rule. Everything would be rigidly interconnected so that ripples of any event would affect the whole universe! In nature we see random processes dissipate the effects of local disturbances. Sound waves die away with increasing distance travelled owing to the random series of molecular collisions in the air. So it may be that a degree of chaos at some levels is built-in to the system to insulate us from each other. Our individual acts don’t deterministically destroy everything like falling dominoes.

You can read more about randomness in the brain in other articles.¹

Scriptures that support the effects of randomness

Point 1: More to come.

Point 2: More to come.

Point 3: ‘Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations.’ is said in Deutoronomy 5:9, Exodus 34:7, Exodus 20:5, Numbers 14:18. These verses seem to support how randomness can be used to limit the eternal effects of the choices in family lines.

Point 4: More to come.

Randomness and God’s plan

Finally, randomness can improve the true feedback needed for a system to work. This type of randomness is called ‘stochastic resonance’. It can be used for multiple signal boosting activities. One example is to improve balance in the elderly. I can see how the agency provided to each of us provides the correct amount of stochastic resonance to improve the signal related to God’s eternal plan.

Next, we see a clear description of probabilistic events and how they relate to complete random choices in time. As we move through time and then look back on our currently random decisions, we will be able to explain the probabilities and connect the random dots.

Chance is history-dependent. The simplest way in which chance is history-dependent is when the conditions that may produce a certain event change over time: Suppose you enter a labyrinth at 11:00 a.m., planning to choose your turn whenever you come to a branch point by tossing a coin. When you enter at 11:00, you may have a 42% chance of reaching the center by noon. But in the first half hour you may stray into a region from which it is hard to reach the center, so that by 11:30 your chance of reaching the center by noon has fallen to 26%. But then you turn lucky; by 11:45 you are not far from the center and your chance of reaching it by noon is 78%. At 11:49 you reach the center; then and forevermore your chance of reaching it by noon is 100%. (Lewis, 1980: 91)

• randomness