30 The Question of an Eternal Hell
or does not: in the former case, that person will probably find
the way toward the correct view of the matter sooner or later,
even if he or she never fully formulates it, not even to himself
or herself; in the latter, that person probably lacks a certain ca-
pacity for seeing or acknowledging the obvious, and so will re-
main immune to even the most powerful case to the contrary.
But, putting the issue of my prejudice aside, I cannot take the
claims of this Catholic philosopher entirely seriously from any
angle, for the simple reason that his actions so resplendently
belie what he professes to believe. If he truly thought that our
situation in this world were as horribly perilous as he claims,
and that every mortal soul labored under the shadow of so
dreadful a doom, and that the stakes were so high and the odds
so poor for everyone-a mere three score and ten years to get
it right if we are fortunate, and then an eternity of agony in
which to rue the consequences if we get it wrong- he would
never dare to bring a child into this world, let alone five chil-
dren; nor would he be able to rest even for a moment, because
he would be driven ceaselessly around the world in a desperate
frenzy of evangelism, seeking to save as many souls from the
eternal fire as possible. I think of him as a remarkably compas-
sionate person, you see, and so his more or less sedentary and
distractedly scholarly style of life to my mind speaks volumes,
even libraries. If he were really absolutely convinced of the
things he thinks he is convinced of, but still continued to go
his merry recreant's way along the path of happy fatherhood
and professional contentment, he would have to be a moral
monster. But I do not think that he is a monster. So I have to
think instead that, in his heart of hearts, at a level of calm con-
viction so deeply hidden beneath veils of childhood indoctri-
nation that he is all but unaware of its existence, he keeps and
treasures the certainty that in the end- in the words of Dame