Why is believing in God a requirement to avoid going to hell? Why isn't it enough to be a good net positive person?
Discussion
Because the only people caring about going to hell or not are people who believe in God.
In this hypothetical situation, every recently deceased is confronted with the existence of heaven and hell whether they believed in it or not.
i’m not totally sure. but i’m moving toward a place where i see the two as equivalent statements. living with conviction of higher principles might be somewhere in the middle of both statements.
Because selling an entrance to heaven is big business for the world’s religions. After running a money printer, the second surest business is to convince the people that you act as gatekeeper to immortality, and to charge them for your services.
I would suggest the position could be viewed this way:
If a lifeguard saves five people from drowning, but intentionally drowns one person, wouldn’t a human judge still sentence them as a murderer even if on “net” they are more good than bad?
How is the trolley problem related to believing in God as a prerequisite to enter Heaven?
It’s not the trolley problem, but rather an illustration that “good” deeds can’t offset the “bad” that keeps us from God/heaven. It was my feeble attempt to reframe the perspective. Perhaps another way: A hole in a ship’s hull leads to sinking even if most of the hull is intact.
It’s not a matter of weighing good relative to bad but rather the understanding that bad exists in us at all and that bad is what keeps us from God/heaven.
Imagine a door. Anyone who walks through the door gets the deepest desires of his heart fulfilled to their maximum extent. His actual desires—not the desires he thinks he has or wishes he has. Imagine the effect walking through that door would have on you and the world if you and everyone else endured eternally. Would the result be Heaven or Hell?
I just don't agree with the concept of "true desires that are distinct from the ones you think you want". A desire is by definition what you think you want.
If someone/something is deciding your desires for you, they are not your desires anymore.
To answer your question: not heaven, not hell. But it sounds a lot like living under an authoritarian regime that knows what's best for you.
The kind of belief more or less necessary is like the belief in a destination. Belief has been overemphasized, but there's a small component to it- if you didn't believe in San Francisco, you would be unlikely to go there.
Like trying to improve, or attempting to acheive perfection in a particular domain. What keeps you trying in the face of impossible odds?
I don't want to sound like I'm nitpicking, but can you expand on the "good net positive" expression and clarify it a bit more?
all just ideology