Summary of text [comment] page 45

[The presence of statistical variation (which de Chardin, for all practical purposes, used to explain the necessity of natural evil) means that we have another worry.

When we will slip from the realm of actuality to possibility, will the context remain true?

Consider our prayers:

First, we may ask God to “preserve us” (and suppress the obvious consequences that, if God were to preserve me, then more and more energy would be devoted to maintaining “me” and less and less energy would be available for other trials, thereby undermining the spontaneous order).

Second, we may ask God to “design something better” (that is, to “alter the rules of the game in our favor”, and suppress the obvious consequences of biased selection in a spontaneous order).

Third, we may ask God to “deliver us from evil”.

Now, this one is in the Lord’s Prayer, so I better not dismiss it.

The phrase “deliver us from evil” is placed after a very practical list. It comes almost as an afterthought.]