Souls of the Damned

I have a question about souls. This may be beyond the average person’s ken of theological matters but it is worth thinking about.

If souls are eternal did they always exist? I know the belief is that once they are created they last forever but I was wondering if they have a preexistence before they enter a body. That is a minor question really because my next question is the one that I really can’t get my head around.

If it is the case that a soul enters a body at the moment of conception, then why are so many souls destined to never live outside the womb? It is tricksy stuff. Evidence is not conclusive but anywhere from 25% to 50% of all pregnancies result in spontaneous abortion. Think about that: up to half of all souls never get to live outside the womb and seek salvation for the Original Sin of all men. They never get a chance to accept Jesus into their hearts. They never get to be with God. They used to go to Limbo up until recently. Some used to say that they were damned because they were not baptized.

There was/is a lot of theological hand wringing over this issue, and rightly so with the number of souls involved and the importance of the issue. Now I think it is unfair that up to half of all souls are condemned to an eternity of hellfire without even the chance at salvation. I suppose we could say it is a ‘mystery’ and that it is all part of ‘God’s Plan’, but that really doesn’t satisfy.

I am trying to work through this in my head. God creates souls. The souls enter ‘bodies’ at the moment of conception. (They really enter a couple of cells at the moment of conception, but whatever). A large percentage of those physical bodies are not born. Some could ask why God would condemn these humans to never be born and get a chance to know Him and seek salvation and avoid an eternity of Hell. One answer could be that since the Fall there are all kinds of bad things that happen (earthquakes, volcanoes, disease, etc.). It really isn’t the fault of God but due to Man’s wickedness. Man originally turned away from God and chose to know good and evil, therefore God was forced to allow suffering in the world. (I’m not too sure about why that is, but we can leave that for now). But again, to my limited human understanding, it seems grossly unfair to allow a circumstance where an individual has to suffer for eternity for a sin not committed by that individual, and without even getting a chance to do anything about it.

As I said, I have a limited human understanding of the situation. But I am forced to ask, if I am to be honest with myself, how is it that anyone knows that any of this is true? How do we come to believe that it is all part of God’s divine plan that so many souls are destined to not know Him, and that this makes sense? Actually, it doesn’t make sense but we are to believe that because it does not make sense just means that we don’t understand it but in the mind of God it makes sense because it has to because God is perfect; a paradox.

Confused?
Me too.

I can only work with the tools available to me. If something doesn’t make sense, then it doesn’t make sense. To be told it makes sense because it doesn’t is the height of obfuscation.

It is a house of cards and a lie.

There is another explanation for the damnation of untold billions of souls. There is no damnation.
There are no souls.

That I can accept without compromise.
That I do accept.