The following question comes from a relative who I would like to help more: "Why would a God who is omnipresent omnipotent and all-loving create people when He knows such a very small percent will choose to follow Him and the rest will be sent to hell? -- Patrice McCully
Questions about why a just God tolerates evil address the classical theodicy question. Any problem with God's justice falls into this category. To begin with, it is not wrong to have these kinds of questions. In Genesis 18, Abraham struggled with God's justice in connection with Sodom and Gomorrah. Read the account carefully; the important point is not the percentage of the populace who "made it." The key issue is Abraham's faith in a just God. As he exclaims "Will not the judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25) And a number of other biblical characters shared similar concern. See Jeremiah 12:1 and Habakkuk 1:3 for example. To ask the question, even the most fundamental bothersome question, is actually therapeutic, and to "stuff" the question may be injurious to your faith. In other words, part of maturing spiritually is being real enough to work through your concerns, even if at the end of the day they are only partly resolved.
Well why would God create individuals (or allow them to be born) when he knew that they were not going to make it through to heaven at the end? The answer has something to do with free will and something to do with the meaning of goodness.
As human beings we have the ability to make good choices as well as to make bad ones. A moral universe is one where there is right and there is wrong. Moreover it is possible for beings of free will to embrace good and to embrace evil. If it were not possible for me to do wrong then why would I be praised as a good person? Goodness is possible for us humans when and only when we have a choice. (Think about it!)
Sure, God could have chosen to create no one -- no one with free will. No free will with no risk -- but also no people! Bottom line -- creating people must have been worth it (and it must be better than the alternative of creating nothing) -- otherwise, God, who is always good, wouldn't have done as he did. Interestingly, you rarely hear critics who blame God for the world's injustice suggesting he shouldn't have created them!
A final analogy is in order. Why do we choose to have children? Considering the possibility they might embrace a life of crime, even turn against us their fathers and mothers, why don't we just play it safe and decide not to procreate? It is worth it for love.
This article is copyrighted and is for private use and study only. © 2003. Reprints or public distribution is prohibited without the express consent of Douglas Jacoby.
