55% of born-again Christians say that there is not a chance that they will go to hell. Beliefwatch: Catch Hell June 26, 2006 issue - Conservatives are more confident than liberals that they'll avoid hell—and that they know someone who won't. Liberals are less confident about their own chances of escaping hell and less sure they can identify the damned. These are a few results from an unusual online survey Beliefnet conducted this month among 10,000 of its members. Asked to rate their "chances that you might go to hell," 46% of self-identified conservatives said "not a chance"—compared with 28% of liberals. Born-again Christians were the most upbeat about their odds: 55% said "not a chance" compared with 21% of Roman Catholics; 56% of those who filled out the survey thought they knew one or more people who were "probably" headed south, with 64% of conservatives saying yes and only 47% of liberals. Conservatives, and men, are more likely to believe in hell as a physical place with fire and demons, as opposed to a spiritual state of separation from God. Do you know the doomed? 61% of men said they knew some hellbound folks, compared with 54% of women. (It's unclear whether the results show that men are more judgmental, better judges of character or hang out with more evil people.) Most people said the doomed are "acquaintances," but almost 25% said the hellbound are members of their own families. Women were more likely to consign family members to hell, quite possibly because they spend more time with the family. And why are these people going to fry? The answers reflect one of the oldest theological debates: which matters more, faith or good works? For instance, 60% of born-again Christians (almost all of them Protestants) said the unfortunates didn't have the "right beliefs," compared with just 19% of Catholics who said that. 80% of Catholics said it was because of the person's immoral actions, compared with 40% of born-agains. The same split persisted politically: liberals said damnation was determined by bad behavior; conservatives, by a smaller majority, thought beliefs mattered most. In what may be a worrisome sign of the state of family relations, those who thought their family members were headed down were very likely to think of hell as a place of fire and torment. Oh, and eternal. It was unclear whether the respondents were expressing a prediction or a wish. —Steven Waldman and Laura Sheahen © 2006 Newsweek, Inc What Catholics believe surprises me, but I was raised unsuccessfully as a Protestant so what do I know. Discuss among yourselves
That might be one of the biggest 'divides' between Islam and Christianity (theologically speaking, that is).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't 100% of born-again Christians believe they are going to heaven? Isn't that the whole idea of born-againness?
They might feel that they have fallen away from God's grace and if they were to die right now, they would go to hell.
Yeah, my understanding was if one asks for forgiveness and accepts/knows Jim Casey as his/her true savior, then they're good to go. The angry agnostic in me thinks they give this answer because calling oneself a sinner is less painful, in conventional society, then admitting oneself to be a hypocrite.
No surprises here.. I genuinely believe in hell, too. It's a figurative representation for humanity's sorry state of affairs, and boy are we burning right now
sheol....tomato/tomata there were lots of different thoughts about after-life coming from Judaism. there were 12 tribes and different sects of Judaism. the pharisees absolutely believed in a life beyond mortal death. the sadducees did not, at all (that's why they were "sad you see" -- that's how i remember it) look in the old testament and you'll see references to "the pit"..to "sheol"..and to "the grave." they're references to dark places you don't want to be. Jesus spoke a bunch about hell. Turns out he was Hebrew. Even in Christianity you have tons of different ideas about what hell is. I'd say it's eternity apart from God. I don't know what that looks like, but I know I don't want it.
I can't tell what's weirder: that 45% think they may go to hell, or that 55% seem quite willing to judge themselves worthy of heaven.
i don't want to get into a whole theology thing here...but if these people are aligning with what i understand to be Christian thought, then they're not saying anything close to that. in truth, it's what confuses a lot of Christians about other faiths....that grace can be "earned."
Max, that confused me. Are you saying it's perfectly logical for a christian to proclaim himself "not going to hell"?
no..i'm saying that Christians aren't saying they deserve heaven. most will tell you they deserve hell. but that they were rescued by grace...by God's gift through Christ. as a Christian, that's what i'm saying.
Understood. One cannot correlate "not a chance" of me going to hell to "i am so perfect that I don't deserve hell". That is quite christian - unfortunately, the wording of the poll seems to disguise any such sentiments.
you're right. but if you write it this particular way you can poke fun at Christians! that's a lot cleaner than that whole deal with the lions!
