Eric's Heaven Page

Eric's Heaven Page

I had been brought up to believe that Heaven was the ultimate of existence. Conversely, Hell was the exact opposite. If you didn't both be a good person and go to church and do all the other things that you are supposed to do in the church (e.g., eat fish on Fridays, go to church on holy days of obligation in addition to every weekend, etc.), you would surely be doomed to an eternity in Hell.

I got to thinking, however, about how much sense this made. If you asked most believers to describe the god that they believe in, the overwhelming majority would say that God is a wonderful being who created us all and loves us all, his children, with the most overwhelming, purest love imaginable. Like all parents, he wants us to turn out well and to appreciate him. Catholics believe that God loved us so much that he gave up his son (Jesus) so that we all might live in heaven for eternity. I asked myself how one gets to Heaven? Well, since Jesus opened the gates of Heaven for us, all you need to do is follow the ten commandments and all the rules of the Catholic church and you'll be fine.

Sure that I understood how to get into Heaven, I asked myself how we might get into Heaven if we weren't so enlightened as to know what the rules of the (Catholic) church were, or even about the existence and nature of God.

I imagined the existence of an aboriginal tribe in central Australia which had never had any sort of contact with Western Civilization (such a group may not exist now, but certainly there have been long periods of time in history when there were many such bands of people in the world). Further, these people, as well as being totally ignorant of western religions, didn't even have an idea of the concept of God or gods. They somehow managed to avoid going through the origin of god and origin of religion phases. Can these people get into Heaven?

Most people are willing to concede that God would not be so random and so unfair so as to doom these poor folks to an eternity in Hell solely because of being born into ignorance through an accident of birth (i.e., being born into such a tribe instead of being born in a place that is more enlightened). Traditionally, the Catholic church presumed that these people were, in fact, so doomed, which is why it seemed so very important to send out missionaries so that these people would have a chance at salvation.

Embracing the "fair" God instead of the "random punishment" God, I told myself that it must, then, be possible for those aboriginals to get into Heaven. However, it clearly was not necessary for them to attend church or do any church traditions in order to do so (their ignorance of the church and of God prevented this). And if they could get into Heaven that way, it certainly makes sense that we can too. We have established, then, that unless God punishes people for the accident of not being informed of the rules of the church, people can get into Heaven without consciously knowing of or believing in God (i.e., it is not necessary to go to church to be saved).

Some myths:

It's not deeds that save us -- it's grace. This refers to the notion that we are only able to go to Heaven due to Jesus' sacrifice -- with the implication that it's only through recognizing this and going to church and going through the motions of doing church things that we can be saved. Well, if going to church was enough to be saved, Adolph Hitler could go to Heaven merely by going to church. The fact is, that going to church is a meaningless action. Adolph Hitler could go to church. A chimpanzee could go to church. Would this allow either of them to go to Heaven? Of course not. This demonstrates that going to church is certainly not sufficient in order to go to Heaven (and we've already discussed above that it isn't necessary either).

What's important is choice -- we have to make a conscious choice to believe in God and to love God. Again, if those aboriginals can get into Heaven without making a conscious commitment to God, then we can too.

My conclusion of how to get into Heaven: be a good person and live a good life. Love your neighbors as you would have them love you. This is the key. This idea is a fairly universal one that transcends all the world's major religions.

That said, I have to admit that I don't believe in the existence of either Heaven or Hell. Like all other religious concepts, these were invented by man. Early man, disappointed by what otherwise would mean the ceasing of existence at death, invented the concept of an afterlife to comfort himself. This idea developed, in some circles, into a good afterlife and a bad afterlife (i.e., Heaven and Hell). Well, I know for a fact exactly what happens to us after we die: Our bodies decay just like all dead creatures. I see no reason whatsoever to believe that there is ANY sort of afterlife other than the memories of you that might exist for a time in the earth's remaining creatures. Some would say that the stakes are too high to risk being wrong on this issue, though. I am convinced that if an afterlife does exist, then the rules for admittance must be uniform for everybody (i.e., both the aboriginals and us) and the only common denominator against which we all can be judged is whether we were good people. This, then, is my over-arching philosophy of life: Love each other and, more importantly, treat each other accordingly.

Eric's treatise on Religion, God, and the Bible
Eric's Religion Page
Eric's Philosophy Page
Eric's Bible Belief Page
Eric's personal Home Page

Here you see a frank, objective discussion of issues that often generate strong emotions. If you do not agree with my views, feel free to express your views to me and the logic behind them. If you have nothing constructive to say, however, please keep your opinions to yourself.

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This page last updated 01/03/02