Reader DS writes: In your friends game if one of the characters committed an evil act how could your friend judge them as he is the one who created them to commit the evil act?
First, it’s not like our game had any sort of moral structure to it. That’s really taking the analogy too far. But if we insist on exploring this nontheless, then we should keep in mind that he didn’t program them to commit the evil act, he programmed them in such away that they were allowed to choose to commit evil, or to commit good. It is the quality of the decision that is being judged, which then determines the nature of the deciding character.
If you’ll excuse me going off on a judgment tangent, I’m not so sure that Hell should be seen primarily as some kind of punishment. The parable of the wheat and the chaff seems to suggest that those cast away are simply not useful or somehow worthless for God’s purposes. Again, I’m not saying that this is the case – obviously, I don’t know – only that this is the way it appears to me. And, of course, I have no idea what God’s purpose for us might be beyond this world, though I suspect it has little to do with sitting around playing harps.