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This question came up the other day. Most people in America are not particularly spiritual or religious. But do they consider this question at all. My guess is that most people don't think about it at all. But maybe they do. So what is your experience. My own belief is what the Bible teaches. Hell for the wicked, heaven for those who lived their lives and died with faith in Jesus Christ
This question came up the other day. Most people in America are not particularly spiritual or religious. But do they consider this question at all. My guess is that most people don't think about it at all. But maybe they do. So what is your experience. My own belief is what the Bible teaches. Hell for the wicked, heaven for those who lived their lives and died with faith in Jesus Christ
First things first: even if one deeply believes someone is destined for hell, it is not politically correct to tell them so. Also, while some may laugh off hell proclamations, others claim it is psychologically damaging...so think it in silence.
As to the OP, I believe change continues to happen. Change is voluntary and involuntary.
No one here can tell you what most people think based on their experience. I know people with the wide range of beliefs, from the heaven/hell proponents to Christians who believe in a Purgatory and those who do not believe in a hell at all, to people who believe when you're dead that is the end, to others who believe in reincarnation. And others still who believe our souls return to a collective consciousness.
The one thing we all have in common is that none of us really know.
I find most people don’t want to talk or think about it. I think about it a lot.
I am 71 and am highly excited for the big adventure of death that’s coming (not so for the dying part)
I know I go HOME, so I can’t wait.
As I’ve mentioned before — I came out of the womb with existential angst — “Why am I here?”
I’ve never felt comfortable or at home in the human condition, but know I’m here to grow spiritually.
I find great comfort in the credible NDEs we’ve been given, as many of them give us a glimpse of what going back home will be like — and it’s glorious..
Most people in America are not particularly spiritual or religious.
This sounds like your personal feeling but if you have citations for this assertion I would be most interested to consider it. But I think the US is actually unusually religious, based on what i've read. Maybe not to your particular specifications, but to me the important part is religious faith -- affording beliefs without requiring evidence -- is the problem, not insufficient piety based on your or anyone else's specific determination.
Quote:
Originally Posted by augiedogie
But do they consider this question at all. My guess is that most people don't think about it at all. But maybe they do. So what is your experience.
I think many people don't think about it deeply or substantively. Most people are born into a religion and that is their religion for life. Within any one group -- denomination or what have you -- there tend to be a minority who are, you might say, the "pillars of the community" who are very serious about the beliefs, and the rest are pretty much there for them to hector, as if 100% of the reason most aren't that "into it" is because they are lazy, indolent, "sinners" or something. It is seldom an opportunity to reflect on what is so uncompelling about the belief system, because to these "pillars" it is totally compelling. And many holy books are happy to encourage such gaslighting with long lists of denigrating adjectives for the outsiders and insufficiently pious.
Personally I was on track to become one of those pillars myself. I thought and studied at length -- including formally. But for various reasons the abstractions leaked too much and I had to find ones that didn't. Other's mileage can, and will, vary.
The reason I said that most are not particularly religious is because, maybe only about 10% of the population attends any type of religious service on a regular basis. Surveys have shown that only about 10% of children have any regular exposure to religious worship services.
Who knows what most people believe but as of 2021, 3 out of 4 Americans believe in Heaven while 2 out of 3 Americans believe in hell. This suggests that most people believe they are going to one or the other.
The reason I said that most are not particularly religious is because, maybe only about 10% of the population attends any type of religious service on a regular basis. Surveys have shown that only about 10% of children have any regular exposure to religious worship services.
As per Igor's point there are other measures, such as a majority of Americans believing in the afterlife. Also I tend to measure the impact of religion less in terms of its raw numbers and more in terms of its influence and impact, which I'd argue is outsized in the US. One entire political party is, depending on your analysis, is either a front for Christian fundamentalism, or finds Christian fundamentalism a very useful fool / fulcrum of control. Fundamentalists sold their soul (or whatever soul they once had) for temporal power a couple of generations ago and now they are so wedded to political power it is hard to even tell them apart.
The transition has been striking to someone like me who used to be on the inside. It used to be that Fundamentalists felt political entanglements were worldly and beneath them, and they had at least stated ethical and moral standards. Now they will overlook almost any moral lapse in the service of what was formerly considered "worldly" influence. Give me the judges I want, and you can be a serial philanderer and compulsive liar and a cruel, vindictive sack of resentments -- no problem. Go for it! Some of us will even write books about how you're the modern manifestation of Jesus.
I don't get the sense that fundamentalists self-reflect much or at all about such things, or even have particularly coherent theological views. It is all about power for the sake of power.
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