Calculating the probability of a “streak” is straightforward. It is just the product of the probabilities of each individual roll coming out the way you want. So, the probability of rolling seven 1′s in a row from a fair die is 1/6^7 or 1/279936. The probability of this happening at any particular time is always the same.

As to your assessment of the Calvinist god, you will find several people at this blog who share your view.

Also, I have had experiences like your #2. I’ve known, when I’ve been speaking to somebody, that I’m going to be called to their calling, for example.

Okay, in an infinite universe, even a relatively small number of coincidences can happen to the same guy? (I’ve rolled a ‘one’ seven times in a row while trying to get a six to be able to move on.) Maybe, but that doesn’t take away my spiritual roots, because they’re not based on a parlor game-type of “predict this” contest.

Probabilities may theoretically be incalculable by the nature of probability. But let’s talk about inclinations. If I’m an alcoholic, who’s not even trying to recover, what are the chances of a bottle of vodka surviving long on my kitchen table? That’s not very complicated. But God is supposed to have an infinite mind that can perform calculations and contain information in a way that we can only imagine.

So yes, God knows something about future — perhaps he engineers at least some of it to come to pass by manipulating the ones around us, who follow him already by their own choice plus the natural world, which follows a logic he’s already mastered long before he set anything in motion. So yes, we are talking about a chance far better than a crapshoot for him to know if I’m going to commit adultery tomorrow.

As for the Calvinist idea: Hogwash. Utterly reject it. I apologize for my brutal attack to any Fundie Evangelicals reading, but the Calvinist God is the ultimate monster. He has “lovingly” created humans, who have been destined to eternal torture since before the beginning, while others are having the biggest party ever without doing anything to earn it? Right. In the face of a reality like that, I’d be pretty sure to say I’d rather go to Hell anyway, because I wouldn’t want to associate with people like that.

My Father has given me a choice and a second chance already.

Re rolling the seven ‘ones’ in a row: Unless the die is weighted otherwise, the probability is the same every time. It doesn’t matter how many ones I’ve already rolled, it’s always that 1/6 to get it. Now, if I roll it ten thousand times, it definitely starts looking like 1/6. That’s what makes probability tough. Often theorists are not able to put it clearly. I’m not even aware of ways to predict the exact probabilities for “streaks” at any particular time — as far as I understand, it is really impossible unless you know the die is heavily loaded, which just makes the 10,000 time repetition turn out differently. But I didn’t pay much attention to probability anyway.

The present does not “come from” the future, like the roll of film in a movie projector. If the present comes from anywhere, it comes from the past, and in a completely different sense. There is no “tape”.

If the future cannot be “seen” for logical reasons, the past almost certainly cannot directly be “seen” either. The past doesn’t exist anymore – that is why it can’t be changed. God may remember it in exhaustive detail, but it isn’t “out there” somewhere.

Where does the future come from before we experience it as the present?
no where.

Mormons believe in creatio ex nihilo after all!

Agreed, I would be interested in a poll as well. A real one, though, not an internet one.