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The million dollar complicated question is whether this is because of the religions themselves, or tribal theism, which hijacks any religion for gain of the group.
Do you think religions are objective things aside from the groups of people that make them up and their thoughts?
What then, is your personal interpretation of scripture regarding the question of who would be granted eternal life and who is doomed?
-Is the serial killer who truly repents and finds Jesus on death row granted eternal life?
-Is the Hindu, who lives a life of helping others and doing good, granted eternal life?
-Is the non believer who lives a life of helping others and doing good, granted eternal life?
Presupposing all these questions, I think, is the idea that eternal life is heaven when you die rather than hell when you die. I don't buy this.
Eternal life is here and now; hence "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21), and "this is eternal life: to know God" (John 17:3). To repent means "metanoia", to think about your thinking. And ultimately to join this relationship with God, which starts here and now, and through entering this life you by definition change your will to God in proportion to how much you're in this kingdom, which has started being on this earth (God's kingdom is where his will is yielded to, as with any other kingdom).
The Hindu is in eternal life or kingdom of God insofar as they are following their conscience and doing the will of God. Likewise with the nonbeliever. But with a key distinction: eternal life, in order for it to exist as a continuity, you need to know how it works and ultimately "who" is at the basis of this life: Jesus Christ, not in historical form (that would be the means by which he revealed what I'm about to say) but rather than incorporeal form, the Word or Logos of God.
"So why become Christian?" Because a Christian is one who unveils how conscience and the will and kingdom of God work and labels them correctly as such, allowing them like the person trying to swim to know all the right moves needed to sustain himself and move across the water.
Make sense?
Lets back up a second for further clarification.
Do you believe there is a heaven where certain people are granted entrance to after death?
Do you believe there is a hell (or whatever you want to call it) that is not a pleasant place, where people who are not granted entrance to heaven go?
I believe in heaven and hell, but think they're not antithetical because (surprise surprise) they're mistranslated. There is no mention of "going to heaven when you die" in scripture. None of it. There's mention of the kingdom of heaven, and of heaven in general, but that's all a mistranslation which omits a single derivational morpheme "s". It's not "heaven" but "heavens" plural, which refers not to "after you die" but instead what we basically consider empty space, which is actually the domain (or even body) of God.
Hell is also very rarely mentioned as we've mythologized it. You have Sheol in the OT, not at all the place we think of as flames and such, which is the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek Hades in the NT, and also the very precious and fascinating Gehenna, which Jesus pretty much exclusively referred to, and is interesting because Gehenna (not "hell") is a literal physical place, an everburning trash heap southwest of Jerusalem, which Jesus in his brilliance used to compare to the life that is lived without God.
The real Biblical picture is that we need bodies to be selves. Okay then, so how are we when we die? Not sure about the transitional period between death and resurrection (maybe we're united again with God for a bit), but we need a physical resurrection so we can have physical bodies. So what houses these physical bodies? A new regenerated (and probably much huger) earth.
Can an atheist then be in God's good graces when they die if they led a good life?
Seems you have a different view than many other Christians.
Yeah, here's the difference: most other Christians talk about God's grace and how great it is, but only apply it to them and the people who agree with them.
I sorta just read the Bible and take it extra seriously.
Well, I think people who think like you are clearly the minority of Christians, but likely growing.
Even Billy Graham, had clear ethical and moral issues towards the end of his life, when he ticked off many Christians by basically saying non-believers could make it to heaven.
Ask some of the Christians, a few will try to dodge it but besides Catholicism, and a handful of other denominations, you can murder all the people you want and still get into heaven if you are a believer. Protestant? You can kill people. Methodist? You can kill people. Universalist? You can kill people.
As objective as you and me, sure.
What I meant is, is a religion separable from it's adherents?
That's the big question. I really don't know how you separate a religion from its adherents. It's an easily ascertainable fact that people can use religion or anything instrumentally in their own preferred ways. So there's no doubt that lots of people do that. The question becomes: at what point is a religion just a religion, rather than misused by its adherents?
I think the answer is: what its principles and commands are. That's what a religion is.
Here is where the problems come in. Who determines what a religion's principles and commands are? Who has final say on what they are or are not?
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