Athiests go to heaven?!

Good news for Christmas! Many Americans think I get to go to their imaginary heaven!

"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. Jesus said so: “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” But the survey suggested that Americans just weren’t buying that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27blow.html?em

This is a great Op Ed in the New York Times. It goes on to say that nearly half the respondents who thought all major religions could lead to heaven, they also said that atheists could go to heaven as well.

The author talked to some people who argue that because we live in a multicultural environment in America, and meet so many good people, we want to believe that everyone who is good goes to heaven.

This is a relief. In many other studies researchers have found that atheists are often one of the most, if not the most, hated group of Americans. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1786422&page=1 This is a really bad rap. The Pacific Northwest has the highest amount of people who chose no religion, and is also a great place to live, and has many thriving charities and low amounts of crime. So how bad can we be? I think part of the reason this survey found that so many people hate atheists is that they felt it was OKAY to say outright they hate atheists, but not okay to say they hate Muslims or black people out loud. sheesh

I also find it frustrating. Many people claim to be religious, or claim to be Christian. Yet they don't really believe in any specific Christian doctrine, they don't believe in the literal Bible, they don't believe that only Christians go to heaven, etc. So why not just give it up? I think most of the people I know don't really believe, and should at least say they are agnostic, if not outright atheist. Just give it up, you are an atheist, so just say so. Maybe people will quit hating us. It also will give those evangelicals less power when they claim they represent huge numbers of Americans, which they clearly don't.

I have Christmas photos and such to put up, I just haven't been on the computer much.