Chances of salvation. We can all understand a bell curve that shows the distributions of the heights of a thousand people. Those of middle height will be clustered in the center of the bell curve. The very tallest person will be in the little corner of the right hand side, where the curve meets the flat line. The very shortest person is as far to the left.
Catholic Fundamentalists believe that The Programmer provided us with the ability to make and use bell curves so that we’d have at least a crude idea of how He might divide souls into the damned and the saved.
We could postulate that a bell curve that held all the souls there ever were would be could be divided into the saved and the lost by a vertical line running through the middle.
When we consider that notion in light of history, difficulties arise. In 13th century Europe, whole populations worked hard to build vast cathedrals. Attendance at Mass was nearly 100%. It seems unlikely that half of those faithful, church-building, church-going people went to Hell.
In those same nations today, less than 10% of the people go to Church regularly. Even fewer take the Sacraments. Many refuse to go to Confession or Communion. Most will not even make a silent protest against abortion, much less a verbal one. Working against them is the fact that they even choose to ignore the many, many monuments to the very faith they have rejected. Can even half of such apostates be saved?
On the other hand, since birth, they’ve been swimming in water badly polluted by heresies that have crystallized into a religion that worships the state. In that respect, their lack of faith is understandable. Is it forgivable?
