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I should follow up and confirm that you're satisfied with that answer since I realize you actually asked a similar but slightly different question. You're asking not why God would create souls that go to Hell, but,
Why create any souls if most go to Hell?
I think the post I sent you does a good job of touching on this, but if it doesn't, please let us know how it doesn't, and we will try to address your question better.
Eric
Grace replied:
Hello Eric,
Thank you so much for your response.
It sort of answers my question, although, like what the post said, "the mystery remains."
Do you think you could explain the part of why any souls would be created and what would happen if the Heaven-bound souls wouldn't exist?
293 Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: "The world was made for the glory of God." (Vatican Council I, De Filius, Canon § 5: DS 3025) St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it", (St. Bonaventure, In II Sent. I,2,2,1.) for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: "Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Sent. II, Prol.) The First Vatican Council explains:
This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power", not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal. . ."
God created the world for the benefit of us; "the glory of God is man fully alive" (St. Irenaeus). God does not need creation, nor does he need us, nor does he need glory, but he created us for our own benefit, to "show forth and communicate" his glory.
What would happen if heaven-bound souls wouldn't exist?
Well, there would be no one (unless you count the angels) to benefit from God's love and goodness. It's like why people have children: They have love they want to give away, and they want to share their benefits with them.
I think you are asking whether the benefits of a few souls in Heaven outweigh the negatives of a multitude of souls in Hell.
I expect the glory of one soul in Heaven is so great that it outweighs the negatives of all the people in Hell. But that's just my opinion.
I guess the question is, you used the word "better".
Wouldn't it be better if <no souls exist> than <a few souls in Heaven and most souls in Hell>?
What do you mean by "better"?
How do you measure or reckon "better"?
Do you measure joy and sorrow and weigh them in a balance?
Is it better for God to keep His Goodness to Himself or share it with a few people who want it, even if many do not?
There is a principle in math that you can't compare infinities.
person in Hell, in a certain sense, has an infinite amount of sorrow, as they are immortal and their sorrow will never end.
Each person in Heaven has an infinite amount of joy by the same reckoning. You can't add up, say, 1 trillion souls in Hell with infinite sorrow with 1 million souls with infinite joy in Heaven (for example) and say that it is more: Both are infinite quantities and can't be compared.
Another thing to factor in is that souls in Hell get what they want. People go to Hell, believe it or not, because in a mysterious sense, they prefer it. No one is forced to go to Hell; they freely choose it.
So who are we to say that it is better that no one exists than a multitude exist who go to Hell?
Eric Ewanco
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