How can God not be in Hell, if He is Omnipresent?

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A third option given by my high school religion teacher, who I’ve kept in contact with as I value his opinions. His response:
Of course God is present in Hell. How could there be a reality separate from the source of all reality? The damned are thus not because of God, but because of their free choice. For without free choice there is no love. But choice means an option. That option consists is being in God’s grace (relationship), or not. The “or not” part is Hell. Even though God is present in Hell doesn’t mean the souls there see his presence. First they did not see God, then they could not. That was their choice. Now they live eternally in the consequence of that decision. And as my friend Aquinas wrote, “whatever is received is received according to the mode of the recipient.” Just because the damned are not aware of the Presence doesn’t mean He’s not present. Their mode is one of sin which is separation, not objective separation but subjective separation. We see evidence of this here in this world. A parent’s love for his child is still present objectively even when the child rebels and separates himself from that love. All that child need to do is open up and accept that love for that relationship to mend. Throughout history Saints and theologians have all said that its not God who leaves us but we who close ourselves to his presence.
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CutlerB said:
Another thing is, according to Michelle Arnold in one of the Quick Questions on CA, God did not create Hell but rather permitted it to be. (I don’t understand how that works either, since nothing can be created apart from God.)
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I dont understand that either, it seems to me, once Satan rebelled, God indulged him and gave him a domain of his own and his fallen angels LOL, Why would God sink to this level, giving satan and the other demons a ‘home’. This does not make sense to me, seems like satan got exactly what he wanted.

Why didnt God just say, OK, you want to rebel against me, then you are kicked out of heaven, and I could care less where you or the other fallen angels go, but God should certainly not have created a place for them. If this is true, then does every person who rebels against God get the same treatment? Keep in mind, God did not take any of satans powers away either, he allowed him to keep influencing mankind, a very long life, if not immortal like God. I cant understand why God didnt just turn satan and the other fallen angels to dust after the fall.
 
mikekle said:
I dont understand that either, it seems to me, once Satan rebelled, God indulged him and gave him a domain of his own and his fallen angels LOL, Why would God sink to this level, giving satan and the other demons a ‘home’. This does not make sense to me, seems like satan got exactly what he wanted.

Why didnt God just say, OK, you want to rebel against me, then you are kicked out of heaven, and I could care less where you or the other fallen angels go, but God should certainly not have created a place for them. If this is true, then does every person who rebels against God get the same treatment? Keep in mind, God did not take any of satans powers away either, he allowed him to keep influencing mankind, a very long life, if not immortal like God. I cant understand why God didnt just turn satan and the other fallen angels to dust after the fall.
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I’m not sure what you mean by God giving the demons a “home” (this is the way the world thinks of it, not Catholic theology) because it is anything but. There is nothing pleasant or good about being in Hell. The demon’s don’t even own hell, because it is a state of being.
 
The purifying fire of God, his Love and Truth, is hell for some people and heaven for others. It depends on the state of one’s soul which it is.
 
J_Peterson said:
Exactly. Seems like this question comes up a lot because I feel like I typed this before but…If someone were truely separated from God they would cease to exist. Every existing thing has God as it’s/their center. We can easily ignore Him though.
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Yes. To use Frank Sheed’s analogy, we are all created from nothing. If a human being creates something, say, a wooden chair, and then walks away and leaves it, it is held in existence by the material from which it is made–i.e., the wood. But we are created from nothing. If God walks away from us, we are held in existence by the material from which we are made–i.e., nothing. God is at the center of our existence by necessity.
 
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