Do you have to be religous to go to Heaven?

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I've been thinking about death and the afterlife some lately after I had attempted to kill myself a couple of weeks ago. This is something I have often wondered because despite the fact that I choose to be an athiest, in the back of my mind I always wonder about the afterlife.

In the Christian religion (which I am using as an example because it's the most dominant religion in the US and the one I was raised around) they believe in the existance of Heaven and Hell. Typically they preach that if you're good you go to Heaven and if you're evil you go to Hell, but since I refuse to believe that any person is all good or all evil I like to think of it as if you're more good than evil you go to Heaven and if you're more evil than good you go to Hell.

However I've heard some Christians say that the only way to get into Heaven is to accept Christanity as the only true religion, nd there's many different types of Christanity that believe in different things and all of them believe their individual beliefs are the one true faith. But do you really have to be a full fledged Christian just to get into Heaven when you die (assuming there is one)? There are lots of people out there who are really good people yet are non-Christian because they are either athiest or from a completely different religion.

While I admit I have done a few things I'm not proud of (attempted suicide being one of them), I consider myself a pretty good person. I'm not selfish and am always trying to give to others, I'm very loving towards my closest friends and family, I think about the world all the time and how bad it makes me feel when people are hurt or suffering, I take care of my pet animals and make sure they are always fed and cleaned, and I have never intentionally broken the law. I know that for the most part I'm a very decent human being who is compassionate towards others, so if I were to die it doesn't seem like I would deserve to go to Hell just because I choose not to follow religion, and the reason I don't follow religion is because I would rather follow my own guidelines for what I consider to be right and wrong and just accept everyone for who they are. I feel as though religion conflicts with my own morals because I see people who are religous doing cruel things all the time and using their beliefs to justify it.

So I'm wondering if anybody understands what I'm saying? Should the fact that you're a good person who tries to do good for others take over the fact that you're not religous or of a different religion when it comes to getting into a better afterlife?

the mormons believe that eternal life in some level of "heaven" is a "freebie" IOW anybody who has lived and has not done another human being some mortal harm with malice aforethought, will matriculate to a pleasant afterworld of some kind. the catholics believe that if you've been a bad person but have not committed any worse than venal sins, one will spend some time in a punitive place they call "purgatory" to purge one's spirit of the evils one accumulated during a lifetime, before ascending to heaven. the jehovah's witnesses don't believe in a hell at all, maintaining that such a concept has its roots in a mistranslation of the original tongues describing a garbage dump outside old jeruselum. when i was a young man, this subject concerned me greatly, because i had a fundamentalist older brother who kept telling me that if i weren't "saved" by the age of 12 [or age of legal majority by the latest] i'd burn in perdition forever. so i started reading books by/about edgar cayce, dr. raymond moody, dr. ian stephenson, dr. george ritchie, robert monroe, "the seth material" and anything else i could get my nervous little hands on. after reading all of this, i've come to the conclusion that each of us has an individualized afterlife directly pertinent to our conduct in the most immediate lifetime, and to a lesser extent, to lifetimes before that. IOW i believe we've been recycled through this earthschool many many many times, and most of us have many more earth lessons yet to go. we won't have gotten it right until we learn the golden rule, which is a most simple rule yet the hardest rule man has to learn. i take great comfort from this old bit of wisdom from the persian mystic Rumi-

"I died as a mineral and became a plant;
I died as a plant and rose to animal;
I died as animal and I was a man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man to soar
With angels blest. Yet even from an angel
I must pass on; All except God must perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived."

Last edited by auntblabby on 26 Oct 2011, 2:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

What you say has a great deal of merit, if human beings were not basically good then the idea of Christ's sacrifice would be meaningless. Although as a Christian I believe accepting the message of Christ is an important component of going to heaven, we must not forget that God already did love the world and it was through this love that God sought to reconcile ourselves with him.



It seems that society has made 'diversity' the shibboleth of the modern age. This seems be be due to the fact that relativism is seem as a preface towards being open and that openness is primary virtue. I share your view that most people are basically good and that in general they do more good than evil. That said, if that were enough, then we would be satisfied with the world as it is and we would need yearn to reach or reconcile ourselves with some higher standard. This desire is innate within all of us and we usually hunger to have it filled.

The position that one must relativise truth in order to be open is however a false dilemma. Those of us who are Christian can still see truth in the life of Ghandi. There certainly can be people who believe that because a Christian is what they are then by necessity they see Ghandi as different; simply because they see themselves a certain way. Rather than being a rule for a Christian, it is in fact a challenge; we must accept that all truth is God's truth. I personally don't think it is useful to pontificate on who is saved and lost; rather, I hope that all are saved and I hope that all those who can be saved are drawn to God for that purpose.



There certainly are such people. Those who lived in the past before Christ, never knowing a specific word about him. Christ tells us that there are many who will be saved who have never even met him and that their faith is greater than even than any of the Israelites.

"I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 8:10-11).

We ought to also keep in mind that God is very merciful and has given everyone a sense of his truth.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. (Ps 98.9)

Indeed, when Gentiles [i.e. non-Jews], who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, (Romans 2.14ff)

What the New Testament tells us is that all people require Christ for their salvation; regardless of the age they live in and that his sacrifice has brought the salvation of all who want it. People can still chose to reject God; he won't save someone against their will.

How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?

ruveyn

Does it depend on whether or not they are circumcised?

Tadzio

priceless.

I don't think there's a heaven or hell. In fact I think that we stand in a land that can be both if we think about it.

the earth, overpopulated by tragically flawed humans, is a hellworld. there has got to be a place better than this world, in some dimension or another.

auntblabby and 91, what you guys are saying does make me feel a little better. It would be nice to know that the good stuff I have done isn't for nothing and that maybe the day I do die that I will be accepted into a better afterlife.

Flawed? Nah, just inefficiently made. The earth used to be worse. It will get better, as long as people aren't stupid enough to be convinced of apocalypse.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBLPkxhSGlM[/youtube]
(I'm surprised noone posted this already)

I think hell is reserved for the worst of the worst (people who commit the worst acts, such as mass genocide, etc.--people like Hitler, Stalin, etc.)

There is no consensus on what hell is anyway.

I think that if someone does extensive good deeds, and is very altruistic, they can get into heaven, regardless of their faith.

Angels of the Lord don't have dongs.

ruveyn

This is how to get to Heaven:
"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."
(Romans 10:9-10)

According to the bible, only those who love god get to go to heaven. Good riddance.

So spoke the Metatron!