One of my favorite Rev. Jimmy Swaggart quotes (from before he got busted for humping a really sleazy hooker) was:
"Let me be very clear on this. If there is anything that is harmful to our cause, it's **HIGHER EDUCATION**!
For anyone outside the US, or younger than 30 or so, Swaggart was/is an evangelical television preacher with a fair amount of popularity in the southern US during the 80's. He raked in obscene amounts of cash with scare tactics and is still at it, as far as I know.the op leaves out too much for a valid answer…the given (per op)is that there is a heaven. after that, the question seems to be a bit vague.
Well, maybe the characteristics you need are unflagging loyalty, bravery and, yes, a little stupidity.
Yes, folks. Only dogs go to heaven.
Granted this were true, It would still seem to me that feeble minded people would on average have a better chance of getting into heaven by virtue ineptitude.
This would be true only if:
Really, if you are so simple minded that somebody with charisma can spout some verses and convince you to dump everything you previously believed in, then there is a very real possibility that someone else with even more charisma and some different verses will change your mind yet again.
So stupid and stubburn people are allowed into heaven?
You know, I’ve been pretty fortunate to know some Christians who believe in God and Heaven, despite the fact that they are quite intelligent. As a matter of fact, they apply their sharp minds to their faith, and they find it stronger as a result. Though I do not share their beliefs, I do admire the fact that they maintain them with a critical eye. By questioning their own beliefs, even as a scientist might do, they re-affirm them.
The point: that intelligence and faith are not mutually exclusive. I might even venture to say that they’re not really related, and so both can exist in the same person.
Does that mean these people are/aren’t going to heaven? shrug Hell, I’m an unrepentant pagan… how would I know? 
Person A has GREAT faith and little intelligence. Goes through life trying to live as Christ exampled and Loves people as he believes he should.
God says “Welcome my good and faithful servent”
Person B has GREAT faith and GREAT intelligence. He too believes that Christs teaching is worth following, because his intellectual processes have led him there through study and research. He too lives life as Christ exampled, but he is constantly questioning and learning and progressing through life as to weather what he believes is still truth. New evidence? Research it, explore it, question it. Decide what to believe…
God says “Welcome my good and faithful servant”
Person C has GREAT intelligence, but struggles with his faith. He hears other intelligent people who don’t have faith. He hears their questions and has doubts. He believes, but really has a tough time accepting it truly intellectually. He does however, see the wisdom in leading a life that is loving and Christ like. He treats his fellow man in ways that would be “other centered” as opposed to “self centered”
God says “Welcome my good and faithful servant”
The important thing is your decision to lead a Loving life, modelled after Christ.
I CONSTANTLY question, I doubt, I search for answers. I am constantly on an intellectual journey to find out about the facts surrounding the Bible and Christs life. But DESPITE all that, I see the wisdom in Christs teaching that says LOVE. Think about other people first! “The path to self destruction is self preservation”.
Though I may question, I can still follow.
When all is said and done, do you think God will hold us to weather we understood everything he said? Or will he look to how we lived? How we loved.
Faith does not reside in the brain, but in the heart.
So people hooked up on heart machines have no faith? You don’t have to answer that. 
JZ
Cute, John Zahn.
What if a faithful guy got brain damage, and the brain damage changed his personality enough so that he wasn’t faithful anymore?
(There was some guy in the 19th century who got a railroad spike through his head in some kind of demolitions accident, and afterward his personality was way different.)
Phineas Gage. It was a tamping iron, actually. Before that, he was brilliant-afterwards, he was violent and incoherant.
To quote my father (I can’t believe I am doing this…)
I think the point is, if you can control, that which is under your control, and use that to follow Christ, then so be it. If your personality isn’t under your control, I hardly think a God who teaches compassion would Judge you based on that. Then again, I’m not God. So who knows? and really, who cares, its a silly question.
I think the best answer would be that the original person really dies and is judged and is replaced by a new one. Each personality is a separate individual and neither is responsible for the actions of the other. Same body, same memories, different souls.
I think that would be the fairest way to run things. (God, it you’re reading this, take note! :D) But hey, I also think that faith is a poor basis on which to pass judgement, so what do I know?
Person A: Brought up in a loving Christian household that attends church regularly, as is provided ample opportunity and reason to belief in what just happens to be the right sect of the right religion.
Person B: Is brought up in an abusive household and is taught from an early age that might makes right and that church is for assholes.
What happens when both die at age 18? Will God only look at the end result(A is “saved”, B is not), or will he take into account the situation both grew up in?
I don’t know. I’m Sorry.
What does faith have to do with the brain? Merely because two things are analogous — intellectual belief and spiritual faith, for example — does not mean that they are equivalent.
Good point Lib
See, the thing is, God isn’t stupid. (d’uh). Obviously, he sees what is in our hearts. He KNOWS who and what we are.
So I think he would be able to tell who is really sincere, and those who are full of hate.