Major religions talk of a heaven and hell, What happened to all the people who died before these religions?

Question

All religions claim to know the truth , blah blah. That theirs is the only one. Well before the founding of the major religions and the newer ones. What happened to people who through no fault of their own died before the advent of these religions

Answer 1

The same thing happened to them as will happen to all the rest of us.....

Answer 2

All truth in this material world is relative and that in the spiritual world is absolute.

Various religious systems have appeared due to the forgetfulness of mankind. Some religious systems attempt to get mankind back to basics before they can progress onto higher understanding - much like schools where you progress from nursery, primary, secondary to university.

All people whether religious or otherwise are always attempting to prove their superiority over others this is nothing new. Real progress is only made when people will work together and this is more so with religious beliefs.

When God created this material environment he had given the laws to everyone so at no time ever was anyone without religion. They only chose whether to follow/obey the laws. When some portions of humanity lost their religions God made some arrangements for them to be re-taught the principles and if necessary from basics.

Hinduism, e.g. doesn't give any starting point in creation - it has always said that the souls are never created and do not have a beginning or end - they eternally exist from time immemorial. The souls came to the material world because of their desire to live separately from God, much as children often want to have independence from their parents when they start growing up.

I Hope that goes someway towards answering your question.

Answer 3

These are my sentiments on religion.
1. Religion has been blamed for more wars than anything else in life ( God would not want any of us to take another's life...life is too precious ). I am sure that anyone who kills except in self defence or defence of others is on the way to hell. (This does not mean invading another country before they have attacked u).
2. Wouldn't it make more sense if there were one religion for all, or one God for all. A fair God would love all people in the world the same. (He would not want radical behaviour or accept killing in his name).
3. I am catholic and there are things about my religion I do not like or accept, I'd call it using common sense, I do not care if you are protestant, catholic or Muslim, If you are a good person and judge others by their actions / words then we have something in common.
If there is a heaven It didn't start in this century, it has been there always and I am sure your religion will not be the reason you get there but the person that you are.

Answer 4

According to Dante, these people are in Purgatory awaiting Judgement Day. Probably having the time of their lives.

Answer 5

Well, that's the sticky wicket with proclaiming you have the one and only path to the truth, isn't it? Loads of other people around before the path was revealed.

For many religions, especially the more peaceful ones, the answer is to give a metaphorical shrug of the shoulders and suggest such things are in the hands of the creative forces of the Universe, and not men... so you should probably leave the matter to the divine and simply concentrate on how you live.

As you can already see from some other answers, though, a popular solution is to simply deny such people exist, or suggest they were very well aware of God's true plan to begin with.

The Catholics, for their part, have come up with a truly novel way of handling the situation. They literally snatched a new level of existence from thin air. People who died before Jesus came along and people who died having never heard of him (and unbaptized infants and children), go to Limbo to stay for all Eternity. They can't get into Heaven, after all, since they didn't accept Jesus as their personal savior, but then again... it would just be a bit too cruel to send them to Hell for living before he came along. So, we need a new place to send them, and that's where they go.

Bible doesn't mention it a single time. Bible doesn't even HINT that it's out there... but, there you have it.

Of course, you could suggest that the important part is God (noting that whenever you do that you're not really talking about God in general, just the Christian God), and that since Adam and Eve were the first two people, everyone since then has to have known.

Mind, someone's parents might have not gotten around to telling their children. I guess it's their children's fault for not guessing the truth under those circumstances. Anyone with common sense should be able to logically work these things out, after all.

Look at all the Christians today. No one had to bring them to Jesus. No one had to give them a Bible and teach them in Sunday school. Not one of them-- NOT ONE-- had to be shown the way.

Nope, they just popped up with a natural understanding that's the way things work and logically found their way to God entirely on their own and without years and years of instruction and prompting to do so.

See, that's how great God's glory is... so since they naturally accomplished the feat on their own without ever hearing about God and Jesus before, then everyone else can, too.

Isn't being judgmental cool?

Of course, it's not true. I imagine like most knowledge, human beings are still on the road to finding the answer to what happens after they die, and since they're much slower about learning on this front and are very prone to a paradoxical state of thinking they are totally superior to the ancients because they have better technology and knowledge, and yet at the same time think everyone several thousand years ago was much more worthwhile as far as God was concerned, since he did all the talking he ever felt like doing back then and then decided to shut up and not bother with the rest of us, I imagine our path to finding the truth is still distant generations in the future, if we do ever find it.

So, I think the same thing happened to all those before the advent of the modern religions as happens now. I think they were born and grew up being taught about the spiritual world around them through those metaphors and stories which were a part of their culture. I think those ancient people came to believe in their notions of spirituality and religion as the fabric and nature of the world unseen, and largely lived their lives satisfied with that explanation. Then, I would be willing to bet they died believing that was the afterlife they were going to, and were satisfied with that, too... just like we believe today.

And, I would be willing to bet if people were grains of wheat, you could hold in your hand the number of them throughout history who died with the truth in their minds.

For the rest of us, there's just what we believe... for now.

Answer 6

God came first, then Adam and Eve - religion existed through God before any person

Answer 7

well, if there is no such thing as hell then where does the bad people go? so that means there is hell therefore it is in the hands of god who will go heaven or hell.

Answer 8

They r still floating around n wondering where 2 go. Loitering, u know, that kinda stuff.

Answer 9

Bill Gates has no need to worry. He will rise again in three days

Answer 10

Just tales made up to make people do what the leaders want them to do.

Answer 11

when they died they sat in a waiting room until God came out and said you can come in now