God, Heaven, and Good People

I apologize if this topic has already been addressed; I only signed up today and didn't have the time to read every post quite yet. Also, to note, in terms of religion, I'm an agnostic nontheist. I don't believe in a god, especially not the JCI god. I also don't know much about the Christian religion, so I've probably made some mistakes here.

Anyway, I was just thinking this morning, if this supposed God wanted only good people to come to Heaven, why would he allow people to know about Heaven prior to death? Does he take people in who are being good in this life only to reap the benefits of the afterlife? Are these people considered truly good? I don't think so. They sound more like oportunists to me. Maybe, then, God can tell which people would have been good even if they hadn't known or believed in Heaven, and only these people are admitted?

I heard somewhere that the concept of Heaven and Hell didn't arise until numerous centuries after the death of Christ, but I dunno if that's true or not. Maybe it's just a technique of motivation, 'cause priests realised that the majority of people are too selfish to even consider devoting their lives to good unless they were going to get something for it.

thats a very good point, why does god give us the view of heaven? i think it is probably, because we can see everything tha may tempt us from being good, knowing about heaven would be to even things out. we can see people with money, power, good looks, so why should we not go for them, because we think/know if we dont, and behave well, we go to heaven.

now that the good christian explanation is out of the way, i dont know. it does seem like a waste of time. there are atheists, who are perfectly good moral people (please nobody start up the stupid arguement about would morals exist without religion) despite not believeing in god, they are what is called humanist, they believe that it is wrong to do some things to other people, they wouldnt dream of exploiting their employees or whatever, they dont need the promise of heaven to behave well. in fact, i think a lot of people who are christian would behave the same way the do now, with or without religion.

good point.
Its a kind of guide for people to act 'good' to allow themselves a ticket to heaven. I think the 'heaven and hell' realm is pathetic quite frankly.

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need the promise of heaven to behave well

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I agree with you Cynic-Al. Religious people often fear death and the judgement of their life or fear the unknown- they want to question about what will happen to them after life. And as a result they have constructed a realm of afterlife worlds- both heaven and hell.

syrcadalena you have raised a very good question indeed.

If only good people go to heaven it really does make no sense that God would tell us about heaven. It would cause people to 'pretend' to be good.

Jesus said 'God alone is good' when someone asked him how to get to heaven. What is Jesus really saying then? He is saying "My dear friend, your passport to heaven has just be refused." This would imply that heaven is going to be awfully deserted!

John 3:16 gives us the answer on how to get to heaven.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it."

It is by grace that we get to heaven.

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Rom 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23

Hmm. These are good points; I'll have to think about this. But I have another question, too. Cynic-Al mentioned good Athiests who give their lives to helping others without the motivation of an afterlife. If there was a God and a Heaven, would God allow people such as this to enter? Even though they have been good people focused on helping others, would God deny them entrance? Personally, I think it would be wrong of God not to let them in; doesn't God give second chances? I think these Athiests deserve a second chance to start believing in God once more proof is set before them.

according to the bible, no they will not go to heaven. the way to heaven is through jesus christ. if thats true, then i think god has his priorites skewed. if someone does nothing wrong, but nothing right, and gets into heaven through belief in god. but someone else is refuesed entry because they didnt believe, even if they would have been canonised if they had, is wrong. if anything, belief should the less important, it is more important to do the right thing for the "wrong" (for want of a better word) reasons, than to agree with the reasons, but do nothing.

Have you read Lewis's the Chronicles of Narnia? I'd have to say that they're my favourite books, probably second only to Orwell's 1984. Despite the fact that they are a Christian allegory, I find Lewis's thoughts on Christianity to be much more acceptable than what I've heard elsewhere.

(Don't read ahead if you don't want to know stuff that happens in the books.) The seventh book (The Last Battle) discusses how Heaven works, and who gets in. I'd look for a quote but I let my friend borrow the book, so... I'll just explain. Aslan, who represents Jesus, states that people who do good things in Tash (the devil)'s name, having been brought up to believe that Tash is actually good and not evil, will still get into heaven. So if you do good things in the devil's name, since God is the one who likes good being done, you'll still go to heaven. On other hand, if you do bad things in Aslan's name, you still go to hell with Tash. I'm a bad explainer, I know. I'll try to get the book back soon to get a quote from it. Anyway, I really like this concept.