{"id":158138,"date":"2025-07-22T09:30:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=158138"},"modified":"2024-12-02T12:36:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:36:54","slug":"ask-a-priest-why-would-god-create-people-who-wont-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-would-god-create-people-who-wont-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: Why Would God Create People Who Won\u2019t Believe?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Q: I have a few questions preventing me from really believing. I mean this in the least cynical way: How can God be all knowing yet put people in a position where in they won\u2019t become believers? I understand the free-will argument, but if God is truly all knowing, wouldn\u2019t he still know about what decisions people will make throughout their life? And why are there things like stillbirths and childhood cancer and infant mortality? If God has some big plan, why couldn\u2019t he just create it that way in the first place with all our memories and ideas and personalities prefabricated? Lastly, let\u2019s say my mom got into heaven, and I went to hell; she would be in eternal torment knowing that I will be burning forever. I think it\u2019s almost a core part of my mother\u2019s soul that she loves me and cares where I am. If she weren\u2019t in torment in heaven over my fate, would she really be the same person? Thanks for reading. \u2013 Wayne<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em> A: You pose some tough questions that people have grappled with for centuries. Ample answers to your questions could fill a book. But perhaps a few ideas might help. Faith is both an act of the will (a person gives assent to a set of beliefs) and a gift of God. Some people sincerely seek the truth and yet don’t make that explicit act of Christian faith. God alone knows the heart and mind of each person. If Our Lord knows a nonbeliever has tried to live a good life as best he can, the Almighty will be merciful when judging that soul. To us believers, the fact that someone is seeking but doesn’t embrace the faith is a reminder that we have a tremendous gift from God \u2014 and that we will have to give an account\u00a0of how we used that gift. \u201cMuch will be required of the person entrusted with much\u201d (Luke 12:48). As for free will and God’s omniscience: There is no incompatibility here. An analogy might help. Let’s say we are neighbors. One day I look out the window and see you trimming the hedges in your front yard. Does my seeing you cause you to trim the hedges? No. You are freely choosing to do the yard work. I just happened to notice it. Now, imagine God, who is outside of time. For him, everything is present. He sees you trimming the hedge in your front yard now. He also sees you doing it a year from now and five years from now. You are freely choosing to do the work today, next year and five years from now. God simply sees all this at once. Admittedly, it is a bit more complicated than that. But perhaps you get the basic idea. Still, there is the underlying question of why God would create us, knowing that so many people would reject him. In fact, some of the saddest lines in Scripture touch on this mystery: \u201cWhen the LORD saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil, the LORD regretted making human beings on the earth, and his heart was grieved\u201d (Genesis 6:5-6). God chose to go ahead and create the world as he did (without the prefabricated memories, etc.), knowing at least some people would respond in love. That was good enough for him. And for the record, God “wills everyone to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). As for physical suffering: This is a fallout of Adam\u2019s sin, which caused a cosmic disruption and brought misery into the world. This fallout means that we inherit original sin (that is, a damaged human nature) and are prone to illness and death; hence, the tragedy of childhood suffering and death. Again, it\u2019s hard to understand this. One explanation is that God allows evil because he can bring something good out of it. That explanation can bring a bit of comfort to some people, but not all. As for your mom in heaven and you in hell: What follows isn\u2019t meant to sound callous but simply theological. It\u2019s an explanation offered by some theologians. Your mom wouldn’t be sorrowful about you because in heaven she would share more deeply in God’s sense of mercy and justice. She would understand that anyone in hell is there because they rejected God. And since she knows firsthand how wonderful and beautiful God is, her love for him would far surpass her earthly attachment to you. To put it bluntly, she would understand that it’s pure justice that you ended up where you did. Again, an analogy might help. Imagine you had a childhood friend, Sam. You and Sam were best buddies. You did everything with him. You loved him like a brother. Fast forward a few years, and you meet the woman of your dreams. Sally is the sweetest, most charitable person you’ve ever met. You fall in love and get engaged to her. The day comes when you introduce Sally to Sam. The thing is, Sam isn’t impressed with her. He later comments to you that he thinks she’s bland and pudgy and even makes a joke about her ethnic background. Does this mean you dump Sally? Probably not. More likely, you cut ties with Sam. You see a crudeness and hardheartedness in him that you didn’t notice before. More to the point, you’re angry at the disrespectful way he talks about the woman you love. Something like that might happen with the souls in heaven (minus the anger). They distance themselves from those who rejected the One they so dearly love in heaven. I hope some of this helps. Count on my prayers. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158138"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=158138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}