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Heaven for the Godless?
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: January 2nd, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27blow.html?partne...
In June, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a controversial survey in which 70 percent of Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life. This threw evangelicals into a tizzy. After all, the Bible makes it clear that heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area reserved for Christians. But the survey suggested that Americans just werent buying that. The evangelicals complained that people must not have understood the question. The respondents couldnt actually believe what they were saying, could they? So in August, Pew asked the question again. 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 didnt 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. We meet so many good people of different faiths that its 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.
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