{"id":6055,"date":"2008-12-30T09:25:08","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T16:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=6055"},"modified":"2008-12-30T09:25:08","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T16:44:56","slug":"who-thinks-atheists-and-jews-can-go-to-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=6055","title":{"rendered":"Who Thinks Atheists and Jews Can Go To Heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\""Heaven<\/a><\/p>\n

In the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, Charles Blow discusses a survey which found that most Christians in the US believe that even non-Christians can be saved:<\/p>\n

So in August, Pew asked the question again. (They released the results last week.) Sixty-five percent of respondents said \u2014 again \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

And they didn\u2019t stop there. Nearly half also thought that atheists could go to heaven \u2014 dragged there kicking and screaming, no doubt \u2014 and most thought that people with no religious faith also could go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I found that op-ed (pointed out in comments by Richard — thanks, Richard!) enormously cheering. A doctrine that says that God is good and just and intends to damn everyone who doesn’t come to the correct church is, frankly, ugly. The news that lots of the Christian majority is refusing to buy that doctrine is nothing but good.<\/p>\n

I’ve never bought the idea that people — at least in a relatively free country — are helpless to resist accepting what their religion teaches them. ((There are exceptions, of course — minor children, for example, may not be free to disagree with their parents. And there are any number of abusive situations in which the person being abused lacks agency.)) By and large, if you believe that Jews or Muslims or Hindu or atheists or queers aren’t equal — and “will be sent to Hell by a just God” is a form of considering people less than equal — then that means you’re bigoted against them. You may not be hateful, you may personally be a swell person who genuinely loves your sister and her Jewish wife, but the fact that you’re willing to accept such a doctrine as true, means that it’s acceptable to you.<\/p>\n

So, I was very happy to read Blow’s op-ed. Plus, as a Jewish atheist, I’m morbidly curious to know who thinks that Jews and atheists can (and can’t) go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, once I looked at the numbers, I think Blow was wrong to say “nearly half thought atheists could go to heaven.” Blow may have been looking at the table on this page<\/a>, which says 41%, which is “nearly half.” But that table is only considering the 70%<\/a> of U.S. Christians who agreed that multiple religions “can lead to eternal life.” So the actual number of U.S. Christians who “thought that atheists could go to heaven” was 41% of 70% — or 29%. ((Following Mr. Blow’s usage, I’m going to use “eternal life” and “Heaven” as interchangeable terms, because it’s a pain to type “eternal life” over and over and over and over.)) Not even close to half.<\/p>\n

I don’t blame Mr. Blow for his error; Pew presented the data so unclearly, I suspect they were trying to make Americans appear more tolerant than we really are.<\/p>\n

\""Heaven<\/a>Pew provided data on this matter for four groups: white evangelical, white mainline, black protestant, and white Catholic. In general, the White evangelicals believe in the most closed-off and exclusive Heaven, and Black protestants are nearly as exclusive in their beliefs. Catholics were the most liberal about who could go to Heaven, although mainline protestants weren’t far behind. ((My spell-checker wants “Catholics” capitalized, but not “protestants.” I’m not sure why.))<\/p>\n

All four groups agreed that atheists are the least likely group to get into Heaven, followed closely by Hindus and Muslims. Jews are seen as much more likely than other non-Christians to get into Heaven — but still not as likely as Christians.<\/p>\n

So let’s look at the numbers.<\/p>\n

JEWS<\/strong>
\n* 36% of white evangelicals think Jews can go to Heaven.
\n* 61% of white mainline protestants think Jews can go to Heaven.
\n* 37% of protestants at historically Black churches, think Jews can go to Heaven.
\n* 61% of white Catholics ((Does not include Hispanic whites.)) think Jews can go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

ATHEISTS<\/strong> ((Pew didn’t list data on atheism for Black protestants.))
\n* 15% of white evangelicals think atheists can go to Heaven.
\n* 38% of white mainline protestants think atheists can go to Heaven.
\n* 39% of white Catholics ((Does not include Hispanic whites.)) think atheists can go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

MUSLIMS<\/strong>
\n* 20% of white evangelicals think Muslims can go to Heaven.
\n* 46% of white mainline protestants think Muslims can go to Heaven.
\n* 34% of protestants at historically Black churches, think Muslims can go to Heaven.
\n* 49% of white Catholics ((Does not include Hispanic whites.)) think Muslims can go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

CATHOLICS<\/strong>
\n* 43% of white evangelicals think Catholics can go to Heaven.
\n* 64% of white mainline protestants think Catholics can go to Heaven.
\n* 41% of protestants at historically Black churches, think Catholics can go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

PROTESTANTS<\/strong>
\n* 66% of white Catholics ((Does not include Hispanic whites.)) think Protestants can go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

The good news is that in every group — even among evangelicals — there are many believers in a universal heaven. Still, some of the findings — such as that among white evangelicals, only 20% say that a good Muslim can go to heaven — are distressing.<\/p>\n

In comments, RonF wrote:<\/p>\n

I belong to the Episcopal Church, which is about as \u201cliberal\u201d as it gets in Christianity. And even they make it real clear that it is faith, not works, that one\u2019s salvation is dependent on. If people call themselves Christians and yet don\u2019t understand that I\u2019d have to say that either they\u2019re not going to church much or they\u2019re not listening while they\u2019re there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have an alternative interpretation: Maybe some listen, and understand, but don’t agree<\/em>. That’s what I hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the New York Times, Charles Blow discusses a survey which found that most Christians in the US believe that even non-Christians can be saved: So in August, Pew asked the question again. (They released the results last week.) Sixty-five … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-semitism","category-atheism","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}