In a recent answer regarding Belief and Free Will, the questioner wrote in part,

"... I am a believer, but only came to the faith because I was persuaded by the evidence. I didn't "choose" to be persuaded, I just found the evidence overwhelming. Three of my friends, however, remain unconvinced despite a rigorous and honest analysis of that same evidence...."

The three friends that are mentioned, who "remain unconvinced despite a rigorous and honest analysis of the same evidence", Dr. Geraghty, those that have tried and studied yet remain unconvinced, isn't that the condition of being in 'invincible ignorance'? Isn't 'invincible ignorance' the state of remaining unconvinced despite trying to assail that stste with knowledge, etc? Isn't one's 'ignorance' invincible when it cannot be overcome despite the honest efforts to overcome it?

This would be different from the situation of a person raised without knowledge of the Truth. Although they are 'ignorant' of the Truth, that 'ignorance' has not continued after study, etc. Thet 'ignorance' is not 'invincible'. Thank you. Don

Dears Don,

Sometimes a person is responsible for this ignorance. Such ignorance is not invincible but is made invincible by an act of his will. Sometimes there is a person (C.S. Lewis comes to mind) who knows ever so much about Christianity, is a great defender of it, but is not able to see their way to be coming a Roman Catholic. He was raised as an ultra Protestant from the North of Ireland where anti Catholicism is very much part of their faith. It is very difficult for one so conditioned to overcome their ignorance about the truth that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ. C.S. Lewis, a great defender of Christianity, seems to have been one of those persons. Judging from the outside, it seems that God had not given him the special grace he needed to submit to the authority of the Pope. Whether his ignorance was vincible or invincible seems to be a matter which only God can know for a certainty.

Dr. Geraghty

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