I know what you mean- I was having issues with that myself... if everything is pre-determined, then why bother trying to be good, it won't help anyway. I'm sure not everyone "merited" to die in the earthquake depending how that sort of thing is reckoned. We just don't know. Do we have free will or not? Ah the great issues of Jewish theology, or why I'm an intellectual semi-heretic and observant Jew all in one. :)