Question for all religious people.

[sojourner]

If a person is an atheist and he had lived his life as a good, honest and hardworking person, always helping other people, loving his family and friends and not having evil thoughts about anyone or anything and eventually he dies-my question is: where does his soul goes-to the heaven or to hell?

Back to Great Spirit.

 

[hughwatt]

If a person is an atheist and he had lived his life as a good, honest and hardworking person, always helping other people, loving his family and friends and not having evil thoughts about anyone or anything and eventually he dies-my question is: where does his soul goes-to the heaven or to hell?

According to the Bible and based upon your criteria, Hell,

 

[danieldemol]

I don’t believe that God would allow the good deeds of anyone to come to naught. But I don’t believe in a binary heaven/hell concept. There are infinite variations in the spiritual development of humanity upon the point of seperation of the soul from the body.

 

[LuisDantas]

I believe the question is more: Does it matter if something is lacking? I can do without cutting off the hands of thieves and the injunction against eating shellfish.

I believe if a faith is lacking salvation that is disastrous not just an, "Oh well. "

If you say so. I can't help but disagree.

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

First establish the existence of soul, heaven, hell and God, then ask the question.

My question was for religious persons who already take the existence of soul, heaven, hell and God for granted and beyond any doubt.

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

According to the Bible and based upon your criteria, Hell,

Then there is something wrong with religious presumptions of what God wants from humanity since I don't think the Father would condemn His son created upon His image to eternal damnation just because he never mentioned His name or believed He exists in the first place if he is truly Love.

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

I don’t believe that God would allow the good deeds of anyone to come to naught. But I don’t believe in a binary heaven/hell concept. There are infinite variations in the spiritual development of humanity upon the point of seperation of the soul from the body.

Well the problem is that all major religions have that black and white approach to the matter and majority of humanity nowadays falls under those religions leaving small portion of planet Earth`s population to believe in existence of a third option or multi option solutions to our problem.

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

Heaven..or back to earth for the next birth.

Back to Earth for another ride is considered as hell in some religions as far as I can remember?

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

People have more than one way of believing in God. Some people have faith in an omnipotent God of unconditional love. This type of God, that is an omnipotent God of unconditional love, allows EVERYONE to enter the gates of Heaven to experience eternal heavenly bliss regardless of our Earthly sins or how we practiced, or not practiced, our religion. God has to do something with all the Chinese. This is what unconditional love means. No conditions. Everyone is save because God uses His omnipotent powers of forgiveness which are a lot stronger than most people who have petty desires for revenge, justice, and sadism of unusual punishment.

I think you will be fine. Everyone gets to "go into the light".

Hahaha even moths ....

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

All the non-made ones are right. They are true; they just have different perspectives. That's my opinion anyhow.

I think you are on to something here since from the beginnings of mankind until modern age there were approximately 15 billion people inhabiting this planet and at least half of them were well deep in polytheism so if any of modern age monotheistic religions is right than hell would be a very very crowded place...and vice versa

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

Smart. You can tell so much about a person by looking at the questions they ask. Very often questions include false presumptions. Most obvious are the ones that only give 2 choices.

Most popular religions nowadays are giving two choices where one`s soul can end up. I agree that there are some religions mentioning third option or multi option as an answer to posed question but that creates another problem-if religions giving two options are right than all others are wrong and vice versa. And this is where plot thickens since if there is a God as a supreme being, a creator of all universe, how we possibly can grasp what is his plan, desires and wishes (if he has any) so having any religion is just beyond any reality. Or option number two-there is no God so again having any religion is just beyond any reality. I would like to be wrong about this but....

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

No, unless you only count the monotheistic religions as "major", which is very arrogant.
Other religions regard our behaviour as having its built-in consequences, as the Hindus in this thread have pointed out. And good behaviour certainly doesn't mean following "teachings" in our view.


Again, no. Only monotheists regard their gods as laying down laws. The rest of us believe that moral behaviour is behaviour that is essential if we are to flourish as human beings, and that is why the outlines are the same.


Indeed!

If I were asked for my personal views, I would deny heaven and hell and affirm that there are many possibilities after this life is over. I trust that when the time comes, someone like Persephone will assess me and select what will be in my best interest.

I agree that only monotheistic religions are giving black and white approach to a problem of afterlife (if any). And I also agree that morality is a separate category from any theism or religion. But as I mentioned before about half of humanity from its beginnings until modern age was monotheistic and other half was everything else so if the first option is right than hell is really crowded place and if second option is right than you have a lot of people suffering `consequences` or being assessed in this moment -either way that would imply that we are not very smart (or moral) as a species but we are surely proud ones to think that other living things will have different afterlife than us.

 

[Ranzo Bianser]

Even restricting ourselves to faiths that have heaven and hell concepts and that do not welcome atheism, quite a few of them do not really claim that atheists will automatically go to hell.

Yup, as long as after death they realize their mistake and start believing . To be honest with you I actually don't think that religion per se is a bad thing and throughout human history it helped us develop and thrive but I think it outdated itself in this space age and now is more of a constraint than it is a booster-just like a shell or outer skin of a lobster. Only problem is that non-religious person cannot fight religious one in the arena of logic since they are operating on irrational level thus battle cannot be won. Only hope is a persistent education of masses free of any religious influence but this stage is yet to be achieved on a global scale.

 

[sayak83]

Back to Earth for another ride is considered as hell in some religions as far as I can remember?

Not necessarily. Human life in 2350 AD can be quite good. You may be a spaceship captain.

 

[dfnj]

Hahaha even moths ....

Agreed. Omnipotence preserves all forms of consciousness. Otherwise, omnipotence would be incomplete.

 

[LuisDantas]

Yup, as long as after death they realize their mistake and start believing .

I take it that you seriously believe in such a scenario?

To be honest with you I actually don't think that religion per se is a bad thing and throughout human history it helped us develop and thrive but I think it outdated itself in this space age and now is more of a constraint than it is a booster-just like a shell or outer skin of a lobster. Only problem is that non-religious person cannot fight religious one in the arena of logic since they are operating on irrational level thus battle cannot be won. Only hope is a persistent education of masses free of any religious influence but this stage is yet to be achieved on a global scale.

Religion is not supposed to be a bad thing. It is not supposed to be in the thrall of supestitition and dogma either.

 

[Aupmanyav]

My question was for religious persons who already take the existence of soul, heaven, hell and God for granted and beyond any doubt.

You did not say so in the topic heading.
I am a very religious, orthodox atheist Hindu following 'advaita' doctrine (non-duality).

 

[hughwatt]

Then there is something wrong with religious presumptions of what God wants from humanity since I don't think the Father would condemn His son created upon His image to eternal damnation just because he never mentioned His name or believed He exists in the first place if he is truly Love.

No. The Bible states no-one is good enough to go to Heaven because of their own "goodness." This is why Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to save us.

I'll put it this way: A person is drowning and can't save himself. Someone comes along and offers them a lifeline. Your options would be:

1) Deny you're in difficulty and need help.
2) Try to save yourself whilst bragging about how good a person you are and have been and don't deserve to be in such a predicament.
3) Grab the line and show gratitude to the one who saved you acknowledging just how hopeless and helpless you are in and of yourself.

 

[danieldemol]

Well the problem is that all major religions have that black and white approach to the matter and majority of humanity nowadays falls under those religions leaving small portion of planet Earth`s population to believe in existence of a third option or multi option solutions to our problem.

That can change