It is true only if you don't consider divine providence.

What I mean is that the source of the soul of each and every one of us has made a decision before birth, a decision whether to accept the laws given by god and serve as his servant or not.

If you were born religious that probably means that you have chosen to serve, I say probably because if despite being raised religious you decide to be an atheist(for instance) it means that you have in fact chose not to serve(before birth), and was only raised religious to give you a chance to redemption.

Same goes other way round, if you weren't born in a religious family that probably means that you have chosen NOT to serve, I say probably because if despite not being raised religious you decide to be religious it means that you have in fact chose to serve(before birth), and was not raised religious to give you a challenge and therefore maximize the good\blessing that god wants to bestow upon you.

That is because god is the ultimate good, and ultimate good, wants others to have said good and as much of it as possible.

Therefore you may encounter a lot of hurdles and a lot of challenges but there is an iron RULE to them all: God does not give you a challenge that you can not withstand.

All the troubles in your life are only brought to remove your sins, which is a good thing because that means that God wants to accept you but he can't as long as your soul is not pure, so he purifies it with said hurdles.

A person so doomed that God does not want his soul will have all the pleasures of this world given to him to repay for what little good he or she has done.

That's why the good suffer and the evil prosper.

Sources: Nahmanides' book 'Gate of Repayment' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahmanides)

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