Am I destined to go to hell?

Question

I'm an atheist, which suggests that hell awaits when I die, but I'm also a research scientist. I work with a group of lovely people testing a new treatment for people with HIV, which suggests that I shouldn't go to hell. The treatment is gene therapy, which can be seen as 'playing God', so that also suggests hell. I try to be as environmentally responsible as I can be, so that steers me away from hell. So help me out here; where am I going to end up?

(Obviously, being an atheist, I don't actually believe I'm going to hell. I'd like to hear what religious people think my fate will be. I'm just curious and am not suggesting anything negative about religion - some of my best friends are muslim, jewish, catholic, etc.)

Answer 1

Through most of religious history, literalism was something different from what it is today. In ancient times, when scriptures were written, human culture hadn't clearly defined the concrete material and the other-worldly, abstract domains as distinct from one another as they are today. "Literally" today is roughly equivalent to "concretely" or "materially", since we life in a materialist age. Furthermore, the mathematization of science in the early modern era has led us to treat material objects as independently-existing and near-absolutely distinct and plural.
___The internal logic of our age tends to view things in a black-&-white, unambiguous manner, and when people try to avoid this kind of rigidity, they usually resort to a black-&-white, unambiguous skepticism or subjectivism. For the most part, people who claim to think with subtlety and nuance don't. They substitute rigid negation for rigid propositions. Secular fundamentalism is just as rigid as religious fundamentalism.
___You phrase your question in language that suggests the most rigid fundamentalism. Calvinism and its close cousins speak of predestination, but most of Christianity has included some sort of forgiveness or redemption in its moral scheme. Perhaps inadvertently, you have set up a straw man in your question, I think.
___The issues surrounding gene-splicing are like the moral issues of our ill-use of new power that go with any new technology. Unintended consequences happen. DDT was a big help in controlling malaria, but.... PCBs gave us some great products, but.... The atom bomb brought a quicker end to WWII, but... Lead additives made paint and gasoline perform better, but... With gene splicing the stakes are perhaps higher than all of the above. We don't do a very good job of consistently producing citizens that seem to take the greater good all that seriously these days, and our lust for technological power, however well intentioned, will likely produce some unimaginable horror before long. You don't have to be a Luddite to want to be cautious about these things.

Answer 2

I find it curious that bout everyone who claims to be an atheist feels like the have to explain it... You and all the other atheist can do what you want.. belive what you want and live your life the way you want.. It doesn't bother any us who believe.. you are not impressing any of us.. and you are not going to cause any of us to come round to your way of thinking.. I don't think any of us gives a tinkers damm about what you do for a living.. good for you, so you are working for a cure for HIV.. so what, so are lots of Chrisitians.. you don't hear any of us trying to justify our existence to you.. so what makes you think that you have to quantify your disbeliefs? Frankly my dear.. we don't give a damm..
Go do what you want and enjoy it.. and if you find a cure for AIDS then maybe someone will give you a huge reward and you will become famous.. so what!.
If you want to be an atheist.. then go be one.. and if you go to hell then..well thats your problem... I guess you will just have to live with it.. oh and since you suggested that because you are such a sincere reseacher and server of mankind..that you should not go to hell then what the hell do you belive in hell for.. obviously, according to you, there is no heaven so how could there be a hell?.. You can't have one without the other... go live your life and when you die.. you'll just have to deal with what you get..

Answer 3

Well, I'll put in my lame 5 cents, if you don't mind.

I do believe in God, but I don't believe that there is this so called underworld called "hell."

None of us know for certain where we actually go, even the ones who believe in God. Those people believe we go to heaven, but believing is just having a lot of faith. In order to believe, you must have faith in it. Religion is all faith.

If you do not believe, then I'm not sure where you believe you're going.

So to wrap things up, no one is 100% certain where we go when we die. It doesn't matter if we're Atheist, Catholic, or Jewish. No one has solid proof where we go. We all will find out when we die.

Answer 4

I'm agnostic, so I'm not exactly in the same position as you there. I was once told that because I'm tolerant of homosexuals, I'm going to Hell. I figure, if there's a God, then he should be able to pick out the good people from the bad, no matter what or who they believe in. I consider myself a good person, so I believe that whatever comes after this for me will be good.

Answer 5

As Christians we are called to love everyone whether other people accept and believe what we believe or not. I will admit the image society puts on ALL Christians is very sad because it makes all of us out to be non caring "nose in the air" bumbs. There are some Christians or at least people who call themseleved Christians that may shrug there shoulders and say "hey im alright" but i think that when they do that it is not exemplifying how they are truly Christians inside. As a True Christian your heart should break for the people and especially loved ones that are not going to be in heaven with you and you should never give up on them and just love them and encourage them no matter what.

Answer 6

Hell is an invention of some religions that in my opinion is highly over-rated.

It is supposed to be a place that "sinners" are sent to as punishment for their mis-deeds. I think we do a good enough job of punishing ourselves here on earth and shouldn't have to worry about a bad after-life.

The Hindus believe that if you don't do a good enough job of your life, you come back in a lower caste. If you do a good job you come back in a higher caste. You eventually reach the highest caste and if you do a good job there, you don't come back and become "One with God"

I kind of like that philosophy ; " Do the best you can with your life and at your death you will become one with the Cosmos."

Hell is here on earth. I have a little sign over my desk that says;
"Religion is for people who are afraid to go to Hell !
"Spirituality is for people who have already been there !"

Answer 7

God gave all of us freewill. We choose where we are going. It's up to you and only you where you will go when you die.
God's in his great mercy won't let you go to hell easily. If you are asking the questions he is willing to give you the answers if you ask, so ask. You sound like you are lacking something in your life.If you were a true atheist I don't believe you would care whether you go to hell or heaven because you would not believe it exist

Answer 8

I tried hard and failed spectacularly to find sense in this question. If you believe hell does not exist it's pointless to make hypothetical questions about it. Especially when you havent defined what "hell" means (in your question you give it a broad vague meaning which could be anything). Then you use words which as an atheist should mean nothing to you, such as "god".
All in all, not much to delve into here.

Answer 9

You are not going to hell because there is no hell. This is hell. Our life on this rock is all the punishment you need to develop a more spiritual being.

We all go to the same place when we die.... the afterlife.

Answer 10

If you do not believe Jesus Christ was the son of God and his death gave everyone a path for sinners to repent if only they would believe then yes you will go to hell for eternity.