acroyear: (fof morning already)
[personal profile] acroyear
Op-Ed Columnist - Heaven for the Godless? - NYTimes.com:
Sixty-five percent of respondents said — again — that other religions could lead to eternal life. But this time, to clear up any confusion, Pew asked them to specify which religions. The respondents essentially said all of them.

And they didn’t stop there. Nearly half also thought that atheists could go to heaven — dragged there kicking and screaming, no doubt — and most thought that people with no religious faith also could go.

What on earth does this mean?

One very plausible explanation is that Americans just want good things to come to good people, regardless of their faith. As Alan Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College told me: “We are a multicultural society, and people expect this American life to continue the same way in heaven.” He explained that in our society, we meet so many good people of different faiths that it’s hard for us to imagine God letting them go to hell. In fact, in the most recent survey, Pew asked people what they thought determined whether a person would achieve eternal life. Nearly as many Christians said you could achieve eternal life by just being a good person as said that you had to believe in Jesus.

Date: 2009-01-28 05:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eiredrake.livejournal.com
You're referring to the faith vs works salvation thing that even Christians can't agree on. They've been arguing about that for the entirety of their religion's existence.

Profile

acroyear: (Default)
Joe's Ancient Jottings

January 2025

S M T W T F S
   1234
56789 1011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 28th, 2025 11:49 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios