[Hitchhiker]

I'm sure Steve would appreciate the parent link painting him as a liar and manipulator. ergo, observe the word "plausible" and humbly suggest that you missed the point. Mr.Jobs had strong Christian colleagues / friends and so am fairly certain a deep theological idea wouldn't be beyond the scope of appreciation.

[Jage]

I "humbly" agree with the point that Jobs was apple to appreciate deep philosophical ideas; unfortunately, prevenient grace is not one of them

Not trying to make any value judgements on Christianity in general, but prevenient grace is an Augustian idea, and as such is one of the more repressive ideas of Christian theology

It directly contradicts Buddhist teachings of Karma

[Hitchhiker]

If memory serves correct, he advised* us not to follow dogma.. so paying my respect to Steve as you suggested and avoiding a dogmatic discussion. Here's a track from another remarkable thinker:

" Is it possible to communicate not by "making known" but by "making understood how little we know"? If we can recognize that we know so little, a method for finding out little we know will become clear as well. As the Greek philosopher Socrates remarked, " The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing ". There are infinite number of methods to attain knowledge; finding the right method is up to the individual ". This single idea throws conventional communications methods into reverse. I call this method "exformation", as a counterpart to "information" ( pg. 376 , http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Design-Kenya-Hara/dp/3037781... )

* - not to follow dogma, if you think clearly, is a faulty recursive function