Friday, November 1, 2013

Any color, as long as it's black

There is an old quote attributed to Henry Ford that goes "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." I reminded of this by the recent kerfuffle between Michael Voris and Fr. Robert Barron. Below are the two videos, if you haven't seen them and care to.




OK, ready? First off, if you notice, Michael Voris accuses Fr. Barron of not saying things he says, and saying things he doesn't say. Nowhere does Fr. Barron say that hell is empty, but that there is a hope that in the end it will be. Now hoping for something is a lot different from asserting something.

But I wanted to add my own $0.02 on the issue of "is hell empty?" I say "no" with great confidence. That's not to say that I can't have hope that God will someday save all, but there are individuals who have chosen hell over heaven. My logic relates to the quote by Ford.

One of the things atheists (and some Christians) accuse God of is making people just to throw them in unquenchable fire and torture them forever. Seems cruel, if it's true, but the explanation is that God doesn't intend for us to be thrown into unquenchable fire, but gives us the gift of free will, and we can choose whether or not we want the fire. This is also an answer to the problem of evil - why a good God would tolerate people choosing evil. Again, free will necessitates that evil is at least possible, just as it necessitate hell is possible. It is pretty clear that some people choose evil over good, and therefore I would say it is clear some people choose hell over heaven.

But then, why doesn't God make people who have free will, but only create those whom He knows will choose good? the problem is like Henry Ford's car color choices. If the only people God creates are those who will always choose good over evil, He has not created people with free will. If you are given a choice of colors, but the only color you can possibly choose is black, you haven't actually been given a choice of colors.

Therefore I conclude that not only is there a hell, but there must be people in it. I just hope I never wind up joining them.

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