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Originally Posted by Ustwo
One thing interesting is I think I heard something recently where some major Christian group, and I don't recall which one,( I don't really pay attention to this stuff though my gut tells me it was Catholic, though that seems odd) said that you can enter heaven, even as a non-Christian as long as your life was led with Christian ideals even if you didn't 'know' Jesus. Thats obviously a huge change and its not been Christian thought ever, but it shows just how big an issue this is.
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I think Kierkegaard had some similar thought on the subject. Something like "a virtuous native from a land untouched by the Bible can be more of a Christian than a 'Sunday School' Christian who grew up on the Bible". Perhaps someone with more than a passing knowledge of Kierkegaard can correct or confirm this.
One tidbit I remember from an intro-level sociology class: the more steadfast, "choose us or you're on the wrong path, follow our dogma or you're going to hell" religions have a better rate of survival than the more open "we're all God's children" religions. Because if my homosexual abortionist wiccan vegan harry potter tom cruise dark tower style of worship is just as good as yours, then my stay-at-home-and-watch-the-game style of worship is also just as good as yours. Some people only go to boring services with monotone sermons and jesus-every-other-line lyrics when hell is on the line.