Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

In several posts I have accepted a possibility that God is a utilitarian Who seeks to maximize human happiness. At the same time, what has vexed me personally to some extent is the fact that God’s utilitarianism, which involves optimizing pleasure over the entire world population and all times, will inevitably trade off one person’s happiness for the sake of another’s, just as long as total happiness is increased. But could I be precisely the person whom God uses as a mere tool, a thing, for the sake of the benefits to others? Could I be perhaps predestined for damnation, because God has chosen to use me for the salvation of His elect and then to throw me away into hell? Now surely you will probably find such concerns neurotic, but that’s only because you don’t take your own opinions seriously!

It may be objected that that’s precisely what the virtues of faith and hope are for. You believe that you are saved through forgiveness of sins by Christ our Lord and you hope to attain eternal happiness, with fear and trembling, perhaps, but hope nonetheless. And you are saved through those very virtues. But what if God has decreed it that you lose your virtues of faith and hope, say, on your deathbed, e.g., by withdrawing grace for perfectly good utilitarian reasons?

That’s why, you say again, we must pray for what is called “final perseverance.” But that’s completely equivalent to praying that we be saved. And if you are predestined to lose your faith, then no amount of praying will help; you don’t expect God to disobey His utilitarian precepts, do you? The needs of the many, yadda, yadda, yadda.

If you find this to be hard to believe, consider that guy, any one of them, who went on a killing spree and then killed himself. By virtue of whose solicitude are you not that guy, such that perhaps it would be better for him if he had never been born (a perfectly chilling statement, by the way)?

That’s what I asked God. And, as it often happens, my cleverness turned out to be stupid, my sophistication only obscures, and my wisdom is shown to be nought, as Job’s opponents, too, were humbled. I believe that everything works out for the best for all people. God is powerful enough to save everyone, even the worst sinners and criminals. Christ warns us about hell, but I believe that hell is empty, and so I am rather strongly in favor of universal salvation. The issue is only how much you will suffer before you come to the light.