What determines whether a person goes to heaven or not?
My observation is that those who claim to be the most 'religious,' who claim to adhere most strongly and strictly to religious principles, who live most doggedly by their religious principles are the most cruel, vicious, angry, violent, and intolerent people in the world. This goes for most religious people and pretty much every religion. And one of the most prevalent things about them is their hypocrisy.
If there is a heaven, those people won't go. If there is a hell: that's where they belong.
That's because the stronger they adhere to their religious principles, the more "right" they think they are and will force you by any means at their disposal (cajoling, arguing, coercion, etc.) to get you to believe as they do.
My opinion? It's usually because that is the only faith they've ever known, and they tend to be nervous about speaking to others about how their faith is different from the one they grew up with. Why? Most of them are afraid of having their faith shaken.
Me? I think that religion is a spiritual kindergarten to introduce to the concept of God to a person, but if that person is smart, they will look for other aspects of God in other religions, to try to gain a better understanding of Him. If you look for the similarities rather than the differences, you'll get a lot farther.
I think of each religion as being only 1 facet of the large, many faceted gem that is God. If you only look at Him from only one way, you only see a very small portion of who He really is.
Me? I don't really know what God may or may not have said to you personally, I don't live in your head. But, if you have a faith that helps you along a spiritual path so that you start actually caring about your fellow humans, meaning the poor, the weak, the orphans, the widows, etc., more power to you, and I hope your afterlife is a heaven for you.
If you use your religion as a way to split yourself off from others and using it to give yourself a false sense of superiority, well..................you might have things to learn about what you might have done better in this life, and I hope the lessons aren't too painful.
The people that piss me off the worst? The ones that say it's okay if I sin, because Jesus paid the price for me to get into heaven.
Got news for you....................repentance is a large part of being able to be forgiven. If you make a mistake and learn from it after only a couple of tries, and learn to never do it again, then you are able to be forgiven.
However....................If you use religion as a convenient "get out of hell free" card, and continue to do aberrant behavior and treat your fellow humans like crap, you're nothing more than a hypocrite.
