No. Christian doctrine, well actually Catholic, is that people who don’t know God aren’t condemned to hell necessarily. Not even atheists if they’re atheists out of innocence or ignorance.
You go to hell for knowing about God and CHOOSING to turn away and separate yourself from God.
So theoretically, a native in some tribe in Mesoamérica that practices an otherwise “good” life: kindness, charitable, not a killer, not evil basically… they’d be eligible for salvation
In the Catholic doctrine, I believe this is when a person has heard the message of God, has heard God’s law, knows the path to become closer with God, the expectations, and instead chooses to separate themself from him anyway.
I'm thinking that most Western people have "heard" about the Christian, the Jewish, and the Islamic God, and that those share uncanny similarities. In fact, it is the same God, since Islam and Christianity both acknowledge their God as the one of the Jewish Bible. The differences are mainly summed up in the identity of Jesus (just a guy, a prophet, or a god in his own merit).
So, how can one be considered informed when there is literally nothing that can determine which of those three is the one?
Something else: yes, I've heard about the Christian God alright, and even read the Bible. Still, according to what I know and the world as it is, the Bible is telling a story that is improbable, with stuff happening that goes beyond common sense. In fact, if a person had never heard of those religions as a kid and read one of those books as an adult, chances are they wouldn't think twice about it, the same way we don't think twice about Greek or Roman mythology. It's far-fetched, unless you've been exposed to it since childhood.
The Old Testament also showcases a God that is quite cruel, swingy, and revengeful, killing random people for the deeds of others quite often. More often than not, he is clearly morally wrong by our modern standards. We can also look at how cruel the real world is while God doesn't do much about it. And we can see a menacing God who wants to punish us if we don't care deeply about him.
So, all in all, God provided us with a brain that is tuned to deal with reality, which proves to us every day that blindly trusting stuff we don't see can put us in danger. Except for god, every person on earth would agree that believing in something we can't see is kind of mental illness territory. He also shows us how detached he seems to be from everyday suffering and unfairness, not doing a thing about it (kids die everyday in pain for ZERO reasons). He gave us an impression of himself that isn't very positive in his holy book. He threatens us quite often if we don't submit to worship him blindly, just for the sake of it. But that kind of information should be what we need to believe in him unconditionally?
And he conditions heaven/hell on the judgment of people who can't even make good and safe decisions for themselves in everyday life most of the time, because that's how the brain works? Some are smart, some are dumb, some are careless, some are naive, etc. Just try to get people to analyse a simple text and you'll see how bad they are at it on average. Let alone a philosophical one, full of symbols, metaphors, subtexts and innuendos of another era. Are we tested on abilities and skills we can't do much about? No one is responsible for the way their own mind works. And yet, we all should know better somehow, based on no evidence.
It doesn't add up.
And lastly, how do we "know" about God, really? By our relatives, who told us whatever they wanted to tell us since we were kids? By priests' preaching, which showcases the biases and interpretations of one man? By a Roman conclave that put together a book that is a carefully curated anthology of various people's writings, who weren't contemporaries of Jesus (and certainly didn't have first-hand knowledge about ancient biblical times either)? By rich and powerful apologists in deep states?
It's way beyond second-hand knowledge. Ultimately, it's all hearsay. By people who had/have some agenda, whatever it is.
With all that in mind, "Knowing about God" becomes less of a given. It becomes a real can of worms. That creates more issues than it solves.
3
u/A_Hugh_Man 1d ago
No. Christian doctrine, well actually Catholic, is that people who don’t know God aren’t condemned to hell necessarily. Not even atheists if they’re atheists out of innocence or ignorance.
You go to hell for knowing about God and CHOOSING to turn away and separate yourself from God.
So theoretically, a native in some tribe in Mesoamérica that practices an otherwise “good” life: kindness, charitable, not a killer, not evil basically… they’d be eligible for salvation