# Christian dopers...would a Pagan "heaven" be a Hell to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 9, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-dopers-would-a-pagan-heaven-be-a-hell-to-you/217824 "2003-12-09T01:52:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![IWLN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@IWLN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IWLN)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-dopers-would-a-pagan-heaven-be-a-hell-to-you/217824/141 "2003-12-14T21:48:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > What I challenged was your specific claim that the _Catholic_ church _banned_ it (with the speculation that the “banning” was tied to a defense of Genesis). Your claim that the Orthodox were Catholics until 1054 is liable to incur an entirely wrathful reply from **Dogface** or a milder rebuke from our other Orthodox posters. I pointed out that no group ever considered it Scripture for the purpose of showing that it was not an issue of getting rid of something that had already been accepted. No, that comment was just to bug **NaSultaine** in the evolution argument. I used the word probably, did not state it as fact. Now you’re trying to get me in trouble with **Dogface**. The Catholic church broke off from the Orthodox. The Catholics were Orthodox til then. **Dogface** , do not get wrathful with me.:eek: During the Council at Laodecia, it said that these books were banned and gave a list. Doesn’t matter if they were banned or dumped. > [@](#): > > The development of the canon in each of the Jewish and Christian groups is a fascinating study of a really messy human activity (guided or not, by God, as one’s belief suggests), but it is rarely so cut and dried as one group or another resorting to skulduggery to shape their view of Scripture. No, but I do think some of the scripture was retained by how the church was already shaped, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-dopers-would-a-pagan-heaven-be-a-hell-to-you/217824/142 "2003-12-15T06:19:11Z")
> [@](#): > > The Catholic church broke off from the Orthodox. The Catholics were Orthodox til then. **Dogface** will love you for that. Great save. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![IWLN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@IWLN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IWLN)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-dopers-would-a-pagan-heaven-be-a-hell-to-you/217824/143 "2003-12-15T06:36:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\ ***Dogface** will love you for that. Great save. 🙂 \*\* Thanks. I’ve been busted on enough things this year. Yah think?😉 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-dopers-would-a-pagan-heaven-be-a-hell-to-you/217824/144 "2003-12-15T13:32:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > \*\*A _very_ silly little topic for “debate” that just popped into my head. > > Say you, a Christian, die after leading a fairly good and virtuous life. However, after death, you wake up in the heaven of a _pagan_ religion…like the [Elysian Fields](http://users.iafrica.com/n/ne/nephilim/elysium.html). > > Jehovah is nowhere to be found. But, it seems, the Pagan gods _do_ exist…in fact, you could meet with and talk to them yourselves. And it turns out that _they_ were of the “true” religion, all this time. Christianity was “wrong.” > > Even though you weren’t a Pagan, since were still a “good” person in life, you were still granted access to the “good” afterlife. And it’s a perfectly nice, pleasant, place to be (“place to _live_” doesn’t really work, I suppose). Just as nice as the Christian Heaven would have been. > > What would your reaction be, to something like that happening to you? Good? Bad? Would it be “Hellish,” even, to find yourself in the “wrong” afterlife? > Like I said, it’s a silly question, and one right off of the top of my head. \*\* For me, heaven is not so much the place you are going but the place you came from. Going to heaven means going home. Life on earth is the journey as you find your way back. If I “woke up” surrounded by loving pagans, I certainly would not be disappointed. It was the love, after all, that I had searched for all along. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-dopers-would-a-pagan-heaven-be-a-hell-to-you/217824.md?page=7)