How to Get Into Heaven

[Greenday]

My friend and I were just having a debate on this subject. She, being from the South, has a strong upbringing in the Christian religion where apparently only her beliefs are the only ones possible. I believe this to be total narrow-mindedness, but yea.

Her side: It doesn't matter if you were a good or bad person. Your intent in life doesn't mean a thing. As long as you believe Jesus died to save us, God will let you into heaven. Since God is perfect, everyone will hear his word one way or another, and on that basis, they will be able to accept Jesus as their savior.

My side: As long as you tried to be a good person in your life, God will forgive you for your imperfections as long as you ask for forgiveness and truly mean it. A serial killer or a rapist who feel no remorse about what they did shouldn't be allowed to just go into heaven because they say Jesus is their savior. If that's the case, then what's to stop me from going around, killing people as I please, as long as I say that Jesus is my homeboy? And just because she grew up in an area where it's impossible not to hear about Jesus doesn't mean there aren't places where it is possible to never hear about Jesus once in your life. I don't see too many people going into places like Palestine and other heavily Muslim areas telling them they have the wrong faith and to believe in Jesus. Surely someone as perfect as God would not send someone to hell because of the way they were raised and they way society shaped and molded them. Because, let's face it, to condemn someone because of something completely out of their control is just a dick thing to do, and God, being perfect, is not a dick.

[AFPheonix]

The saved by grace, not by works idea is very standard across the board for most evangelical churches these days. However, those dogmas do not discount works entirely though. They do not add to your salvation, but they do speak to the condition of your soul.

As to other religions, it just doesn't make sense to me that only a few people in one society would be able to correctly discern whatever higher power is out there. I think that every society dealt with the idea of the supernatural in their own way, and none of them are really entirely wrong.
Furthermore, I feel that many religions, including christianity, have been melded by men to control the populace. This isn't an entirely bad thing though, in my opinion. The old testament laws, for example, probably had more bite as rule of law for the tribes than it would have it they didn't have an ultimate judgement cast down by God, in the eyes of the people. I think they helped a lot with the creation of a functional society.
That control can be used in a not-so-good way of course (see the Crusades), but that is why we always need to be diligent.

[Seshat]

If God is omnipotent, He is perfectly capable of ensuring that everyone in the world is aware of Jesus.

If God is a fair, just and caring deity, and He had a rule that only those who worship Jesus got into heaven; then he would ensure that everyone in the world had the knowledge to worship Jesus.

God has not ensured that everyone in the world is aware of Jesus.

Therefore, if God is a fair, just and caring deity, he must have some arrangement for people who haven't heard of Jesus, at worst.

My personal belief is that all that is good remains good, no matter whose name it is done in. All that is evil remain evil, no matter whose name it is done in.

[Ryu]

But by that standards, if you dont succumb to this societies way of judging the morality of an act, everyone does evil and as such no one could get into Heaven
Who hasnt lied? Cheated? Stole? Broke the law? Lusted? etc etc etc
No one is good enough to get into Heaven by their own merits because we live in a fallen world and our only hope it Grace, which comes from God alone through Jesus Christ.

[Greenday]

I'm not saying you have to be good 100% of the time. That's impossible, I don't care what anyone says. I just feel as long as you tried to be a good person, and when all is said and done, you truly feel remorse for the things you've done wrong, you shouldn't have anything to worry about in the afterlife.

[IDrinkaRum]

I am a Roman Catholic. I am a wayward Catholic. (I had a crisis of faith 10 years ago, and am just now beginning to re-embrace my faith once more).

That being said, I know as a Catholic, I am told to believe that as long as you believe in Jesus Christ, you will be saved. (After all, Catholics, like Protestants, are Christians).

However, I believe that God in his infinite wisdom and love of man, made him come down to Earth and tell man about himself. (This is why in the Jewish and Native American religions, there are stories of the Great Flood - though the origins and stories are different, they agree there was a flood).

What I'm trying to say is this: God came to man and told him about himself. Then those chosen men and women to whom God entrusted his word to, went back to their tribes people and explained God in their own way/voice/tradition.

For me, God is God. There is only one God and he is the God of all religions.

Does that make sense? I hope so, if not, I'm just rambling and please ignore.

[Seshat]

But by that standards, if you dont succumb to this societies way of judging the morality of an act, everyone does evil and as such no one could get into Heaven
Who hasnt lied? Cheated? Stole? Broke the law? Lusted? etc etc etc

The good we do cancels out some of the evil. On balance, are you a good person or an evil person?

If you follow Christ's commandment, and live with love for all people as he did, seeing the good even in poor fishermen and prostitutes, then you will on balance be a good person.

Similarly, other prophets and holy men (such as Guatama Buddha and the current Dalai Llama) provide guidance towards being a basically good person.

[Will-Mun]

How do you get into heaven? Thats easy!


You don't, it doesn't actually exist.


This has been Asshole Atheist Theater! Thanks for coming, try the veal!

[rahmota]

The Riddle of Epicurus

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?

Pretty much you make your own heaven in your own life to your own standards. Heaven and hell are social contructs from human inventions.

[SongsOfDragons]

Naaaaaawww!!! When you die ya go to Limbo Incorporated, the bureaucracy of the afterlife!! An eternity of souls can't be wrong and every customer has been jetted off to their next life satisfied. I should know, I'm the marketing CEO!!!

;-)

LOL. This is my dissertation topic which gradually evolved into the thing I believed-slash- the thing I say to utterly baffle any religious nut in their tracks. I really should start taking pictures of their faces afterwards.

[powerboy]

I'm not saying you have to be good 100% of the time. That's impossible, I don't care what anyone says. I just feel as long as you tried to be a good person, and when all is said and done, you truly feel remorse for the things you've done wrong, you shouldn't have anything to worry about in the afterlife.

That is how I feel.

[Luna]

But by that standards, if you dont succumb to this societies way of judging the morality of an act, everyone does evil and as such no one could get into Heaven
Who hasnt lied? Cheated? Stole? Broke the law? Lusted? etc etc etc
No one is good enough to get into Heaven by their own merits because we live in a fallen world and our only hope it Grace, which comes from God alone through Jesus Christ.

But Ryu, why does grace only come from Jesus? Why can't grace come from Buddha, or the Goddess Diana, or Isis?

[Ryu]

Because there is only one God
I know its not popular to claim that your religion is the only true one, and I'm not bashing or looking down on anyone of another or no religion, but I'd rather be unpopular and at the very least allow people a chance to know God than be popular and let everyone continue in how their going
I realize its different with an online forum but truth offline is still truth online

[Brede]

You are right. There is only one God. And it's every God. Every single faith, every single God, (even Science!) is merely a human attempt to comprehend the magnitude of the reality. Your God, The Muslim's God- all of them. So each one is a reflection of God seen through fallible human eyes.

Or at least, that has always been how I have interpreted that particular phrase.
There is only one God, because they are the same. So we follow the same God, just a different reflection that is easier for us to see and follow.

[Seshat]

Let's presume that everyone is a competent, intelligent human being, with an equal chance of being correct about God.

You (Ryu) know that God is God because you have been taught so, you believe so, or you have felt His touch during a religious experience. Perhaps some combination of those.

However, while there are millions of Christians in the world who share your belief, there are also millions of people of other religions who have also been taught their religious beliefs, believe them, and have felt the touch of their own dieties.

I believe it to be arrogant to call other people wrong; that it essentially claims that your beliefs, your experiences, are correct and other people are less intelligent, less competent than you; that their religious experiences are less valid than yours.