Why would God create someone knowing they would be damned?

This issue has been a matter of debate for hundreds of years, so there is a lot of literature that can be referred to. To make a summary decision based on what feels right about this is probably not going to cut the mustard. My thoughts on this (disclaimer: this is my own limited understanding and should not be taken as definitive eternal Christian legal advice) go something like this:

       It is possible for starters that we create we – not God. This power of procreation was given to humanity, all other animals and plants during creation to re-produce after their own kind. We get to choose whether we do so or not, what we become is due to a mixture of genetics, nurture and our own free will. Some theologians believe the soul/spirit is created by God at conception, others think it is part of the conception process, I think it is probably the latter because he finished his creation on the 6^th day and said it was good. If this is the case – then the first part of the question is invalid – God doesn’t create someone to be damned. It could be argued that we were all in Adam – so in essence he created all of us – but I think this is really an argument regarding our ancestry not our individual being.

b.     Perhaps a similar question is why did he create Adam at all knowing he would sin, and knowing all the trouble that would get us all into. In this case it is important to recognise that God acts according to his divine nature and “core values”. If we agree that His divine nature includes: perfect love, goodness, complete knowledge, creativity and complete power; then al His actions stem from this.
Love and creativity – relationships are core values for God, they exist in his trinity, therefore the expression of these two values is apparent in the creation of Adam. For Love to be realised – the created must be intelligent, emotional and have a free will (free to truly love the creator and other humans or not to do so). Otherwise he would have sophisticated blow-up-dolls, I am pretty sure he wasn’t keen on this idea. Because of his core value of love he created man anyway– knowing that some will break his heart, because Love is very important to him.

c.      Because God is all knowing (omniscient) and all powerful doesn’t mean he can do everything. He can’t do things that are non-sensical or against his core values or divine nature: i.e. he can’t make a square-circle, or will himself out of existence,  or do evil, or forget things. Perhaps foreknowing doesn’t help Him out because he can’t fix it. A couple of ideas around this:

·      If Adam and Eve (perfect beings with no sinful nature) blew it, and he created them anyway, why didn’t he create another different Adam version 6201 who wouldn’t have made this decision. Obviously he couldn’t.

·      If he had no power to alter the decisions of Adam and Eve, how could He have better luck with those born with a sinful nature – would selecting sperm 2071 to meet egg 103 make any difference?

·      Could he select before something exists – i.e. until something exists it does not exist so how could He know something that is not and never will be? I.e. He knows everyone who exists and will exist and their choices and destiny, but he doesn’t know everyone who doesn’t exist because they don’t exist.

·      For arguments sake if he could selectively breed us to improve the odds that ‘good natured’ people will exist who would choose Him, how would we know whether this is occurring.

·      He could also wait for someone to exist, then knowing their future actions, abort them to avoid them doing this. But then he would have a dilemma on his hands – should he let them into heaven knowing that they would have not chosen him? Perhaps because they never lived and acted, their future actions never exist, so he couldn’t know them anyway (as above).

d.     Because he is “good” he will not force a person to love and follow him. If he gives this right (a free will) to one He must give it to all. He must allow people to be born with this choice whether He likes it or not (and whether we like it or not).

e.     If we all have a free will, then we will not be able to stand before the throne and say I didn’t follow you because you created me that way. We get the choice full stop.