As the lovely Jules Feiffer once said, “paraphrasing” Martin Luther (not King Jr, the churchy one): “If Christ died for our sins, dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?” 
Yes, according to my understanding of Christian Doctrine (or at least in the form I’ve been exposed to), the repentant bastard is forgiven - assuming the repentance is genuine, but enters heaven as it were naked and singed, as if having escaped a burning building.
See Post 38.
According to Dante, latecomers to the faith skipped Hell and landed in Purgatory (actually “on” Purgatory, a gigantic mountain in Dante’s cosmology) and had to wait many ages to enter Heaven. Keep God waiting, he’ll keep you waiting.
Was this referenced in The Name of the Rose?
That was the Docinites, or Dulcinians?
Probably the Docetists. They were a related doctrine that believed that Jesus’ material existence was illusionary and he was really a being of purely spiritual nature. By extension, they believed all material things, including their own bodies, were transitory and unimportant.
Keep in mind that we really don’t know what these alternative beliefs really were. Most the their own writings were destroyed by other Christians who were asserting their beliefs were the right ones. In most cases, all we really know about these other beliefs are what we can learn from the refutations of them by non-believers and obviously these are biased. Imagine somebody trying to form an accurate assessment of what Catholic doctrine was if all they had to work with was a bunch of Jack Chick comics.
God knows whether you are sincere better than you do, being God and all that. The answer is yes according to any Christian theology that I am aware of.
Billy Graham said once in an interview that he thinks that all people, including those of all faiths, will go to heaven. He quoted the scripture, “Many sheep have I that are not of this fold.” I don’t think his son Franklin Graham is of the same mind.
I’m with the elder Graham on this one.
Simple answer: I don’t know. I’m not God.
When they die they’ll find out if there’s an afterlife or not and what their role in it will be if it exists. It’s not for me to say.
True. Maybe when we die, we’ll find that it’s all the atheists who get to go to Heaven.
The religious people? They’re all condemned to Hell for the way they kept bothering God with their prayers all the time and never talking any initiative in solving their own problems. And those religious services? Didn’t they read in the Bible about how God likes to relax on Sundays? But he’s got all those people in church wanting him to pay attention to them while they worship him when all he wants to do is kick back, have a beer, and enjoy the game.
Really, people, stop annoying God all the time. Give him a break.
The OP assumes Heaven exists. I’m saying he’s wrong. How is my post not appropriate?
I don’t know what “threadshitting” is.
It’s not that I don’t like religion, that I don’t. It’s that I show how religion is false. Is this a problem for a Great Debates type of forum that you have here?
I’m glad to follow moderator rules.. given that I’ve received a lot of warnings already… but what is it that I should not do again? Say that religion beliefs are false?
Please clarify.
Thanks.
The OP was asking about “What do Christians believe about…” or “What is Christian theology’s position on…?” Such questions are worth asking and answering, whether or not what Christians believe reflects reality. Thus, your response was unhelpful and not really on topic.
From the Beginner’s Guide to Glossary of Terms on Straight Dope Message Boards:
Well, but you don’t show how religion is false; you just baldly state that it’s false. Which isn’t helpful: it doesn’t provide any new information, doesn’t come as news to those who already agree with you, and isn’t going to convince anyone who doesn’t. You remind me of Dana Carvey on the old SNL “McLaughlin Group” sketches, shutting down discussion by shouting “WRONG!”
Plus, you’re becoming predictable. It’s gotten so that any time I see that you’ve posted in a thread that’s somehow related to God or religion, I can guess pretty much exactly what you’re going to say. It’s like you’re one of those “knee-jerk atheists” I’ve heard about.
Is this a reason for me to be banned by moderators that don’t agree with my opinions?
I don’t think that the problem is with your opinion on religion. I truly think it is what I see with most Atheist. It is that they want all Christians to respect their choice in not believing in God, while at the same time throwing themselves into any discussion about God with comments about how foolish anyone is to believe, FSM and all of that.
Atheists really interest me mainly because of their total lack of tolerance for those that have faith. It is like it really bothers them to no end that someone can believe in something they can’t. Why was it necessary for you to come into this discussion trying to “convince” or prove that a God doesn’t exist? How about you don’t believe in a God and let those that do discuss it. Sounds pretty simple to me.
That’s not true of the majority of atheists. I’m an atheist and I have no problem discussing religion with a believer and respecting his faith. The problem is that the most obnoxious atheists and the most obnoxious believers call the most attention to themselves.
Take religion out of the picture for a moment. If there was a thread called ‘Could Superman rip off his own head?’ (and there was), it would be threadshitting to post there to announce that the question is stupid or unanswerable because Superman is a fictional character - it’s an irrelevant nitpick.
Jules Feiffer I do not know from a big hole in the ground, but he, you and I alike would all have to be pretty amazing if we’d never managed to commit our share without needing to try. :dubious:
Come on, man - I’m an atheist too, but we can play with the premise. Do you object to threads with Star Trek hypos as well?
NOW do you see it?
I have a proposition for you. I’ll give you ten dollars for every atheist who protested against the new mosque near ground zero, or even the one in Tennessee, if you give me one dollar for every Christian who did.