Hell, the Self, and Happiness

Given that which is good, the existence of libertarian free will, and the purpose of an individual's existence, which is happiness, how do we explain the possibility of a person's going to hell? The beginnings of an answer are found in the fact that each of us is a substantial self that exists in its entirety at any moment that it does exist and is capable of persisting or enduring as that same substantial self across or through time. For example, though I now have different traits of personality than I had when I was much younger, I am the same self as I was then in the sense that the self that once had personality trait T1 is the same self as that which now lacks that trait and has a different personality trait T2. A story that illustrates this truth recently attracted national attention.¹⁰ A woman named Sara Jane Olsen was released from prison for good behavior after serving only six years of her 14-year sentence. What is particularly interesting about Ms. Olsen is that in 1975 she was a member of a radical group of the 1970s called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). After participating in various acts of violence with the group in California, she subsequently reinvented herself by changing her name, marrying a doctor in Minnesota, and becoming the mother of three children. When she was finally tracked down, arrested, and pleaded guilty in 1999 for her involvement in the violent acts in the 1970s, those who knew her in Minnesota could not believe that she had been a member of the SLA all those years ago in California. Olsen, however, never denied that she was the same self that persisted through the change from a 1970s countercultural radical to a law-abiding spouse and mother at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Now given that a person is aware that he is a substantial self that persists self-identical through time, he comes to distinguish between his short- and long-term well-being or happiness. Often these do not conflict. For example, the teenager who enjoys athletics and avidly participates in them is not only promoting his short-term well-being but is also furthering his long-term potential for happiness by strengthening his heart and muscles and keeping his weight within reasonable limits. Sometimes, however, a person's short-term and long-term happiness conflict in the sense that pursuit of the former undermines the likelihood of the latter. All of us are encouraged not to smoke, abuse alcohol, or use recreational drugs, no matter how happy they might make us in the short run, because addictions develop that more often than not adversely affect our long-term well-being.

Now if our ultimate or long-term happiness is in the afterlife with God who is the source of both, then our awareness of the potential for a conflict between that happiness and our short-term well-being begins with the realization that we are not the only ones with short- and long-term goods. Though it is all too easy for each of us to think of himself as more important than the next person, and sometimes to wish that others who want a good that we desire were not around, the truth of the matter is that each of us is basically one subject among others of the same kind and stature and with needs for many or all of the same goods. All other things being equal, if my having food and shelter is good for me, then it is also good for someone else. If my experiencing hunger is evil, then so is anyone else's experience of hunger. If my family's not having adequate clothing and shelter is evil, then so is any other family's lack of these things. In virtue of the fact that each of us is one among equals with the same purpose for existing, we are subject to the moral imperatives not to steal, not to lie, not to commit adultery, etc. When we exercise restraint and choose to act in accordance with these moral imperatives, we act justly. Justice in this world is ultimately concerned with the deserved experience or lack of experience of goods such as health, food, clothing, shelter, friendship, etc., and requires the exercise of restraint in pursuit of those goods and allowing others their deserved opportunity to pursue them. When we fail to exercise restraint and this opportunity deserved by others is undermined or denied, we act unjustly. As Lewis wrote, “Morality, then, seems to be concerned…with fair play and harmony between individuals.”¹¹

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