Having children while fearing hell

[akck]

In Catholic theology, many things are considered grave matter. Beyond the big things like murder and rape, there are many things that more common that are considered grave matter, such as fornication, pornography, masturbation, adultery, birth control, abortion, divorce, and even skipping mass. In fact, the catechism says breaking the Ten Commandments is considered grave matter (CCC 1858). While the gravity of sins can be more or less great, it is hard to think of a sin that isn’t considered even a little “grave”, if breaking any of the Ten Commandments is considered a grave sin.

The natural conclusion that one can come to is that grave sins are happening very frequently by a very large portion of the population. And if these sins are committed with full knowledge and deliberate intent, they become mortal sins. Unfortunately, many people must be on the brink of going to hell.

What I’m wondering is, if one believes this and believes that many people have a very high chance of going to hell, would it be responsible to not have children? For instance, if you believed that any children you have would have a 50% chance of going to hell, would you still decide to have more children? How about 90%? 10%? 1%?

 

[c4csp]

The reason many good holy priests are speaking up. Jesus told us many souls are on the wide road to destruction. Basically, we should assume most souls do go to hell, because Jesus warned us of that. There are souls in hell. Our Lady of Fatima showed the souls in hell to the children. Jesus warned us but many are indifferent. It is a huge problem because we must take Jesus seriously and not assume everyone goes to heaven.

 

[akck]

So if most souls go to hell, isn’t it irresponsible to have children and helping to create a soul that will (likely) end up spending an eternity in hell?

 

[MNathaniel]

For instance, if you believed that any children you have would have a 50% chance of going to hell, would you still decide to have more children? How about 90%? 10%? 1%?

Salvation isn’t a matter of chance.

Every human individual has free will and God will give each of us the necessary graces to freely choose Him.

It will never be possible to calculate the percentage chance of someone else’s damnation, this side of the grave. That’s the exact kind of ‘judging’ a Christian may not do.

Be at peace. Love your spouse and children. Love God. Teach each other to love God. Entrust yourself to God. Entrust each other to God. And then accept that everyone you love, including spouse and children, does get to make their own final choice. You can’t make it for them. But it’s never a roll of the dice either. They really will decide for themselves.

a soul that will (likely) end up spending an eternity in hell?

No Christian can say this. No one can predict in advance that any given baby will “likely” choose hell.

 

[c4csp]

So if most souls go to hell, isn’t it irresponsible to have children and helping to create a soul that will (likely) end up spending an eternity in hell?

God will give us all the grace for salvation.

 

[akck]

They really will decide for themselves.

So if somebody “decides” against salvation, would it have been better for their parents to never have them?

If we go with the assumption that many (or even most) people will “decide” against salvation, isn’t it responsible to just not have children?

 

[MNathaniel]

So if somebody “decides” against salvation, would it have been better for their parents to never have them?

If we go with the assumption that many (or even most) people will “decide” against salvation, isn’t it responsible to just not have children?

No. Because the possibility of choosing eternal life is worth the risk of choosing eternal death.

Better to live and have the choice, than not to live at all.

 

[Cruciferi]

So if most souls go to hell

There’s no evidence that the majority of humans are damned. This is purely speculation. Likewise, we can only confirm Canonized Saints are in Heaven. Other than that, people’s individual salvation is confidential.

 

[c4csp]

There’s no evidence that the majority of humans are damned. This is purely speculation. Likewise, we can only confirm Canonized Saints are in Heaven. Other than that, people’s individual salvation is confidential.

I see many questions like the OP and I believe they are seeking an answer to if souls will go to hell on how they are living currently. We can hope for amendment of life and salvation, and that can even come on death bed. However, one in a state of living a wicked life is not going to be cruising into heaven. We are all sinners. Some of us have lived and done wicked things but God’s grace is greater than all our sins and weakness. We must repent and change here on earth before death and yes we can hope in salvation. If folks are living a life with some evil and are in unrepented mortal sin when they die, they go to hell. That is what the church teaches. There is hope of salvation but if people do not repent, we shouldn’t downplay the reality of hell. I hope that came across charitable, as that was my intention.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It was Catharism aka Albigensianism. It was eradicated by the Church in the early 1300s.

 

[ThomasMT]

Whatever souls are to be brought into the world will be brought into the world with or without you. Perhaps if it is through you, their chances may be better than with someone else? That would be my resolve. Idk… I’m just entertaining thoughts, its getting late.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Historically, movements that don’t believe in sex and reproduction don’t tend to last long even without persecutions going on.
I was just reading about a Shaker community in US, it’s down to like two senior citizens.

 

[Dlee]

if you believed that any children you have would have a 50% chance of going to hell, would you still decide to have more children?

Turn your question around - by your reasoning, you would be depriving your children a 50% chance of spending eternity with Christ in Heaven.

 

[JimG]

There’s also a chance that your child will become a great saint whose life and prayers will lead thousands of others to salvation.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Mortal sin is knowingly rejecting God. We grow in our faith, we move away from sin, a mature Christian is not always on the brink of mortal sin.

My child is an adult. We did our best to model Christianity to him, to give him a foundation and critical thinking skills. I don’t live in fear that he will get cancer or struck by lightening or that he will reject God. If he does, he has free will, I will still not fear because God loves my child more than I ever can.

 

[Freddy]

What I’m wondering is, if one believes this and believes that many people have a very high chance of going to hell, would it be responsible to not have children?

If you really believe it then the answer would have to be to not have children.

But you will find that not many people seem to worry about the prospect for themselves in any case.

 

[akck]

There’s no evidence that the majority of humans are damned. This is purely speculation. Likewise, we can only confirm Canonized Saints are in Heaven. Other than that, people’s individual salvation is confidential.

Correct. All we can go off of are the rules and guidelines set out by the Catholic Church.

And when the guidelines for what constitutes a grave sin are broad enough to encompass a huge swath of sins that are commonly committed by the vast majority of people, it’s scary.

Do we know that these people are all committing a mortal sin? No. Do we know how many of these people will wind up in hell? No. But if somebody is committing even one of these sins deliberately and with full knowledge without repenting, they are heading to hell.

While we don’t know the numbers of how people are committing sins intentionally and with full knowledge, we can get some broad numbers around those who commit some of these grave sins (such as masturbation, birth control, abortion, divorce, skipping mass), and we can only assume that numbers of those who break one of the ten commandments is even higher. So these numbers are staggeringly high.

God must be extremely forgiving of these sins when people are unrepentant, or he has a very high bar for what constitutes “full knowledge and deliberate consent”, or possibly doesn’t even view them all as grave sin in all cases, or the population of hell is very high. I certainly hope it’s not the latter, but most of what I read from a Catholic perspective contradicts the previous options.

 

[akck]

I see many questions like the OP and I believe they are seeking an answer to if souls will go to hell on how they are living currently

Yeah, I guess that’s at least the first part of the question.

If one believes that number is very high, it seems like a potentially cruel thing to introduce a child into a universe where they have a very high likelihood of winding up in eternal torment and torture.

If one believes that number is very low, the question of having children that can wind up in hell is still a valid concern, but takes on a slightly different form.

For instance, if I believe that my child is almost certainly going to wind up in Heaven, that’s great and I can probably (slightly more) comfortably proceed with having a child. But if I believe my child is almost certainly going to wind up in hell, that’s a terrify thought. I’d rather just not have a child in that case.

 

[akck]

Turn your question around - by your reasoning, you would be depriving your children a 50% chance of spending eternity with Christ in Heaven.

Correct. I just think that people don’t quite grasp how long an eternity is. An eternity of bliss with Christ sounds wonderful. But an eternity of torture is unfathomably horrible.

So back to your question, I guess it comes down to:

If you could either have 2 kids knowing that one would wind up in Heaven and one wind up in hell, or you could have no kids, which would you choose? I would probably choose the latter.

If you took a step further and said you could have 10 kids knowing that 1 would wind up in Heaven and 9 would wind up in hell, or you could have no kids, which would you choose?

 

[akck]

If you really believe it then the answer would have to be to not have children.

Right. And in all honestly, I don’t believe that, and I do have children. But I have trouble reconciling that belief with Catholicism.

But you will find that not many people seem to worry about the prospect for themselves in any case.

Right, and I don’t really understand why.