# Gullible people can go to heaven easily?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [December 2, 2002, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912 "2002-12-02T06:34:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Extrovertive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Extrovertive)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/1 "2002-12-02T06:34:14Z")
Suppose heaven exists. Would it be easier for ignorant and gullible people to go there, since they believe in almost anything without questioning things thoroughly? So, does this mean heaven is full of feeble minded people? In that case, would it be better than not get an education and try not to think critically so that you can go heaven? Cuz if you try to think critically we might question religion and make God angry. That means for critical thinking scientists, evolutiontions, philosophers who try to question religion and finding out its flaws, it would be harder for them to go to heaven, right?
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### Author:  [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/2 "2002-12-02T06:52:13Z")
Dude, were you at Mizzou three years ago with your freaky family and big signs that said i was going to hell for learning and not spreading the word?
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/3 "2002-12-02T07:00:40Z")
That is a fairly \*\*simple minded \*\* approached to the question. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/4 "2002-12-02T07:02:15Z")
Did you know that the word _gullible_ was left out of that huge multi-volumn set of Webster’s that came out about ten years ago?[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/5 "2002-12-02T12:55:35Z")
Ah come on guys, I think it’s a valid question
Any biblical scholars around?:rolleyes: (as if I didn’t know the answer to that one)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/6 "2002-12-02T13:09:03Z")
Well, The Bible does attribute Jesus as having said:
> [@](#):
>
> **Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.**
and
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
> And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. \*\*
We could probably quite easily take these as suggestions that _simplicity_ and/or _innocence_ can be virtues, but these are slightly different things to stupidity and ignorance.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/7 "2002-12-02T13:11:01Z")
On the other hand, isn’t it true that children very often persistently ask _WHY_?
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### Author:  [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/8 "2002-12-02T13:13:26Z")
Children ask why because they are curious. Stupid people don’t ask why because they are often too dull to realize they don’t know anything.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/9 "2002-12-02T13:19:47Z")
Your point being…?
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/10 "2002-12-02T13:22:08Z")
I think that this is a valid question, myself. Will not questioning religious authority, and taking at face value everything your religious leaders say about the Bible, be rewarded if you happen to be raised in the “right” religion? Would God praise you for not looking critically at the Bible, and would you get extra points for not bothering to get to know in detail of other religions? If true, this leads me to believe that getting to Heaven is more of a crapshoot than it ever was before, because you’d have to be pretty damn lucky to ever follow that one true path.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/11 "2002-12-02T13:33:47Z")
…assuming, of course, that there is one true path.
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### Author:  [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/12 "2002-12-02T13:38:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Your point being…?
if you’re like [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146931) guy, you probably wouldn’t be capable of even considering what you were told was wrong.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/13 "2002-12-02T13:43:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Extrovertive \*
> \*\* That means for critical thinking scientists, evolutiontions, philosophers who try to question religion and finding out its flaws, it would be harder for them to go to heaven, right? \*\*
Why is it that you can not believe in God and evolution (or be a scientist) at the same time? I don’t see how the contradict each other (well, I guess evolution contradicts biblical creation, but jeez, biblical creation contradicts itself!)
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### Author:  [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/14 "2002-12-02T13:45:40Z")
Plenty of scientists believe in evolution.
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### Author:  [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/15 "2002-12-02T13:46:51Z")
They’re just more inclined to critically analyze things.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/16 "2002-12-02T13:47:42Z")
Would, say just for example **His4Ever** , be convinced that I would be on my way to Heaven if I dumped over 40 years of studying and personal experience down the drain and converted to her particular sect of Christianity, merely because she quoted selected Bible verses and threatened me with Hell? Would **Polycarp** want me to make a complete paradigm shift in what I believe on the basis of a well-written post?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/17 "2002-12-02T14:00:49Z")
I’m not familiar enough with your personal experiences to know why you suspect such a radical upheaval might be necessary.
Certainly there are forms of belief that discourage independent thought and critical thinking, but as usual they don’t represent the whole picture. Personally, I think that independence of thought and action accounts for a large part of the purpose(if indeed there is one) of our existence.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/18 "2002-12-02T14:24:10Z")
A fairly mainstream Christian view is that, if God has endowed you with intelligence and good critical faculties, He wants and expects you to bring those gifts to bear in all aspects of your life, including your spiritual life. The simple faith of the peasant is all very well, but only if you are a simple peasant.
Hence _not_ approaching religious questions in an open, inquisitive, intelligent, critical way, if that is the way in which you consider it right to approach other issues, is to fall short of the Christian ideal.
Of course, not all Christians hold to, or apply, this view. But it’s not a radical or unusual view, and I think it’s been a fairly mainstream view from the earliest days of Christianity.
I’m less knowledgeable about other religions, but my impression of Judaism is that a questioning, analytical, critical approach to scripture and to religious issues is highly regarded.
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### Author:  [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/19 "2002-12-02T14:31:51Z")
While it’s true that critical thinking and religious beliefs are not mutually exclusive, I think it’s fair to say that those with highly trained critical thinking skills are, as a group, more likely to reject traditional religious thinking. So I think that **Extrovertive** ’s premise is valid.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gullible-people-can-go-to-heaven-easily/139912/20 "2002-12-02T15:24:23Z")
I suppose it would be fair to say that people who are highly trained in critical thinking are more likely to reject _any_ received reasoning - religious or otherwise (pretty much by definition).
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