"I'm a good person so I will go to heaven."

[Jonhyboy01]

"I'm a good person so I will go to heaven." I hear this a lot from people and have really in depth conversations so I would like to ask you the same question.

What's your opinion?
What does your religion say about it?

[Spooky_Eli]

the religion i was raised in(Christianity) states that you can only get in by accepting god as "lord of your life" after witch you are considered "saved".

[lliam]

I will refuse to enter Heaven when God lures, "Hey, Liam, come home!"

Instead, I'll sing that song:

B9FzVhw8_bY


and stay on earth. Or I'll float through the universe and listen to the songs of the stars. Celebs everywhere.

[CoryW]

Bible says you want get to heaven on your works but by faith in God

[Jinglebottom]

I do not believe in heaven or hell, they sound more like fairy tales you tell your kids to get them to behave. My native religion believes in reincarnation, but I do not follow it either.

[Sailor Mars]

“The road to hell is paved with good intention, while the road to heaven is paved with good works.”

That being said, im not Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim, so I don’t really believe in heaven. We’re all guided into the underworld by Pluto and judged, then sent to the Elysian Fields or The Plain of Asphodel. Or, if you’ve been a bad person, to Tartarus

[Melodic]

I'm a big believer that God accepts and love everyone even if they've made bad decisions and/or sinned. Let's be honest, every single one of us will make a mistake at some point that doesn't make us a good person. I feel the best way to handle those bad actions is owning up to them, reading the bible and thinking "What Would Jesus Do?"

[Snowfox]

Logically or as far I am raised everyone goes to hell. Everyone are sinners and god hates sin so god hates everyone. I have been told that god is pure hatred against humankind.

This is so as long as we think god works like our logic does.
But if we abandon logic and if we accept god being something above all we can imagine we cant know for sure. We can just believe.
One thing is sure and its that we cant know.
In church I have learned many things.

[ShineintheDark]

I take issue with the idea that only following a certain faith can get you to this Heaven. No matter what faith, there are billions in this world who do not follow that faith that are still good, kind, loving human beings, just as there are many who do follow that faith that are disgusting and selfish. Religious does not mean righteous.
Furthermore, do we then condemn every baby that dies without knowing faith, just because they cannot truly be of that faith?
A truly loving and benevolent God would not condemn the majority of man to eternal hellfire simply because they don't follow his faith.

[mattsmith48]

There is no such thing as heaven.

That being said if you are Christian you are fine, either you believe in a God that will forgive anything you did and you go to heaven or there is no such thing as heaven. Unless you are wrong but someone else is right, if it turns out Joseph Smith wasn't a conman and the Mormons are right, then you're all fucked.

[EvaNL]

Religion, and with it heaven and hell, is a man made concept. It does not originate from any god. It is simply a way for humans to try and make sense of the world and everything that goes on in it.
Since I don't believe in a god, or multiple gods, I do not believe heaven or hell exist. You're born, you live, you die, the end.
So, do I go to heaven? No, I don't.

I guess I'll see if I got it right after I die.

[NewLeafsFan]

Pope Francis was recently asked by a young boy if his atheist dad that recently passed is in heaven. Pope Francis said that anyone that raised a son to be such a good person "truly" knows God. What he meant was that you do have to believe in God for him to be an influence in your life for the better. This is what I've always believed.

[InternetTeen]

I don't believe in heaven or hell. You live, you die and the world continues without you. I think that very far back in History people invented Gods so that they convinced people to be good and follow rules. However i have nothing against Christians, Muslims, etc. For all i know i could be wrong!

[Spooky_Eli]

I guess I'll see if I got it right after I die.if you think about you'll never find out if you're right only if you're wrong,

[EvaNL]

if you think about you'll never find out if you're right only if you're wrong,

Correct.
Either way, I don't have to worry about it during my life.

[trackinglife]

No primarily because your current standard of good is likely based on your own subjective preferences rather than any objective standard.

[letters0numbers]

I am a Catholic and from it I learned that sinners go to hell and good people go to heaven. But if all sinners go to hell, heaven would be quite empty because everyone sins. God loves everyone so He gives us chances. People who acknowledge their sins and do feel remorse or guilt and apologizes will be forgiven and go to heaven. While people who don't do that still have chances to go to heaven because God listens to our prayers. We know that everyone is loved by someone, and if someone loves someone, he/she would pray for the best for the loved person.

[lliam]

What's your opinion? not my thing. I prefer to stay on Earth.

What does your religion say about it? Nothing. I've no religion.

[colton.S]

of course

[JQL---]

I personally believe that if you are a good person and believe in God, you will go to Heaven.

[ShineintheDark]

Religiousness itself makes me uncomfortable since it sort of lessens the true morality of your actions: if you're doing good because you feel it'll get you rewarded, that doesn't make you a good person, it makes you a trained animal. If it takes the word of an omnipotent God to tell you not to rape, steal, harm others etc and not an innate desire to bring happiness and joy to other human beings then are you really the kind of person who deserves eternal reward? The pursuit of Heaven and promotion of 'true faith' has very much corrupted religious people into becoming something that their own God would not be proud of and therefore makes us question whether the people who have convinced themselves that they are worthy of Heaven even deserve Heaven.

[HeyCameron]

^Agreed. I'm also a bit wary of people who act like because they're "saved", it doesn't matter what they do. That seems to contradict the letter of James, anyway: "Faith without works is dead".

[bonbon]

I don't believe in Heaven, and even if I did, I'd frankly not care. I'm trying to have good behavior because I think that's the way to make the world a better world to live in, and not because some random $DEITY told 2000 years ago that I must act so.

Why should I listen to advices from a being who only care to talk to humanity once every millenium or so, and always using cryptic words? How's a book written by totally random guys in a totally different time and place any better at telling me what is proper behavior than my own ethics ? Where people magically more clever 2000 years ago than now? That concept sounds totally nonsense to me.

[Oscar-V3.0]

if you're doing good because you feel it'll get you rewarded, that doesn't make you a good person, it makes you a trained animal. If it takes the word of an omnipotent God to tell you not to rape, steal, harm others etc and not an innate desire to bring happiness and joy to other human beings then are you really the kind of person who deserves eternal reward?

I'm trying to have good behavior because I think that's the way to make the world a better world to live in, and not because some random $DEITY told 2000 years ago that I must act so.

I kind of agree with both of you, I think you shouldn't do good things because you will get rewarded, but just because it's right, and can help other people.
But I am still catholic

Why should I listen to advices from a being who only care to talk to humanity once every millenium or so, and always using cryptic words?
Thy shall not kill
Thy shall not steal

That doesnt sound cryptic to me :D

[bonbon]

I kind of agree with both of you, I think you shouldn't do good things because you will get rewarded, but just because it's right, and can help other people.
I agree with that, but that's not really all what I meant. My issue is not only with the idea of 'do so because of a potential reward' - it is most importantly 'do so because I'm telling you it is a good thing to do'. I think it is fundamentally wrong to base one's ethical choices over what random guys wrote about it, instead of my own judgement.

What makes the moral rules described in the Bible any better than the moral rules I'm imposing on myself, based on my own experience of living and interacting with others, and trying to understand how and what they feel? Because there is a "Approved by God" stamp on it?

But I am still catholic
I won't question that. That's your own personal choice.

Thy shall not kill
Thy shall not steal

That doesnt sound cryptic to me :D
Ah, it is so convenient to pick whatever translation feels best ! But that text was originally not written in English, but in an ancient form of Hebrew. And in Hebrew, the text doesn't say "kill" ; it rather says "murder". That's *very* different meaning. Even on something as simple as that 'rule', you already have two diverging ways of understanding it.

Sure, you could then object that the rest of the scriptures aims to explain the meaning of the basic rules, provide historical or metaphorical examples, and so on. And that doesn't make me any better with it, since those approve capital punishment against horrendeous crimes like, hum, blasphemy or homosexuality.

The same kind of comment can be done about the "clarity" of "Thy shall not steal" - I discovered when documenting myself to properly answer you that the original text was likely meaning: "You shall not kidnap" !

So yes, to me, those texts are ancient, hard to read due to historical distance, translation layers, totally different societies and ways of living, transcription errors and fragmented/obscure origins. They are certainly worth reading to get a better understanding of how people saw and explained the world back then. But as my ultimate moral compass? Certainly not.

[hayley2003]

imho, whatever happens when people die, its exactly the same for everyone; no exceptions, good or bad.

9vvQc2LO2yY

[Tim the Enchanter]

imho, whatever happens when people die, its exactly the same for everyone; no exceptions, good or bad.

9vvQc2LO2yY

What is this heresy!

[hayley2003]

from the philisophical movie "Circle of Iron" aka "The Silent Flute". The undercurrent is Zen. Bruce Lee created the story and was going to star in the movie before he died.