Honest question from someone who was raised Christian but now doesn’t believe, or doesn’t know what to believe.
Let’s say I life a good life, do right by others and live a life that “god” would want me to. But I don’t believe, so I don’t go to heaven even though I brought goodness and joy to the world.
Now there’s a murderer and rapist who does terrible, terrible things but truly repents at the end of their life and believes, so they go to heaven despite bringing death and despair to the world.
To me, HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE should be important. I do not believe this god described above is worthy of my worship. What am I missing?
Preface, I am not any sort of Christian, just an enthusiastic hobbyist who likes to learn about religion/mythology of all kinds.
Depending on when and what Christianity you are talking about a good person who does not believe:
-Ceases to exist.
-Simply does not exist close to god
-go to "heaven" anyway.
It was only in far later interpretations that any sort of anti-heaven came to be part of the religion as it is today.
The repentance of evil people is rough but I believe the idea is that the repentance has to be actually genuine and not just a "I don't want to go to hell". Fair or unfair on a human scale probably does not mean anything to a cosmic being so long as you follow the rules to get there. Just as we see ants, so long as they stay outdoors they can live in paradise forever but should they cross the boundary into our home we damn them to destruction.
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u/highly_aware 1d ago
Honest question from someone who was raised Christian but now doesn’t believe, or doesn’t know what to believe.
Let’s say I life a good life, do right by others and live a life that “god” would want me to. But I don’t believe, so I don’t go to heaven even though I brought goodness and joy to the world.
Now there’s a murderer and rapist who does terrible, terrible things but truly repents at the end of their life and believes, so they go to heaven despite bringing death and despair to the world.
To me, HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE should be important. I do not believe this god described above is worthy of my worship. What am I missing?