# Should a belief that non-Christians are damned be a bar to public office in US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 9, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540 "2017-06-09T20:27:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/81 "2017-06-14T17:49:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Interesting discussion on the [Religious Forums message board](https://www.religiousforums.com/threads/religions-with-no-hell.146588/) about all the religions that don’t have a concept of Hell. > edited to add: Also, check out the “Afterlife” column on [The Big Religion Chart.](http://www.religionfacts.com/big-religion-chart) Well, that’s a MB, it’s like citing the SDMB. Judaism certainly has a Hell, it is called Sheol, there’s also Gehinnom . Exactly who goes there, what occurs and how long you stay is a matter of much Talmudic debate. > **[Heaven and Hell in Jewish Tradition | My Jewish Learning](https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/heaven-and-hell-in-jewish-tradition/)** > > Heaven and Hell in Judaism. Jewish Life After Death. Jewish Afterlife and Eschatology. Jewish View on Next Life. Jewish Ideas and Beliefs \*Only truly righteous souls ascend directly to the Garden of Eden, say the sages. The average person descends to a place of punishment and/or purification, generally referred to as Gehinnom. The name is taken from a valley (Gei Hinnom) just south of Jerusalem, once used for child sacrifice by the pagan nations of Canaan (II Kings 23:10). Some view Gehinnom as a place of torture and punishment, fire and brimstone. Others imagine it less harshly, as a place where one reviews the actions of his/her life and repents for past misdeeds. The soul’s sentence in Gehinnom is usually limited to a 12-month period of purgation before it takes its place in Olam Ha-Ba (MishnahEduyot 2:9, Shabbat 33a). This 12-month limit is reflected in the yearlong mourning cycle and the recitation of the Kaddish (the memorial prayer for the dead). Only the utterly wicked do not ascend to the Garden of Eden at the end of this year. Sources differ on what happens to these souls at the end of their initial time of purgation. Some say that the wicked are utterly destroyed and cease to exist, while others believe in eternal damnation (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Law of Repentance, 3:5-6).\* Naraka, the Hindu Hell(s) is a place of horrible torture. However, even those few that dont have a Hell per se do,generally believe only their believers go to Heaven. There are a few exceptions. Of course only a few evangelical Christians think hell is a place of everlasting torture. The Pope says otherwise. [http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016...om\_god/1274750](http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016...om_god/1274750) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/82 "2017-06-14T17:54:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Interesting discussion on the [Religious Forums message board](https://www.religiousforums.com/threads/religions-with-no-hell.146588/) about all the religions that don’t have a concept of Hell. > edited to add: Also, check out the “Afterlife” column on [The Big Religion Chart.](http://www.religionfacts.com/big-religion-chart) It is interesting that your second cite list Atheism as a religion. There are many religions with a very small following. You can just count the # which have a afterlife and compare to the # that dont. You have to compare the number of adherents. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/83 "2017-06-14T17:54:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > That is a blog run by a guy, who isnt a religious authority. Those are his beliefs. Okay, are you arguing that for most of the last 1700 or so years (I’m using roughly the time of Constantine as a start date) it has not been a basic principle for most of Christendom that people who are not Christians are lost sinners who go to Hell, and that that belief is only in more recent decades being moderated? Because I don’t buy it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/84 "2017-06-14T18:06:51Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay, are you arguing that for most of the last 1700 or so years (I’m using roughly the time of Constantine as a start date) it has not been a basic principle for most of Christendom that people who are not Christians are lost sinners who go to Hell, and that that belief is only in more recent decades being moderated? Because I don’t buy it. The History of Christian dogma as applied to Hell over the centuries, when compared among the Catholic, Orthodox, many Protestant and other sects, is something that cannot be made simplistic. [http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016...om\_god/1274750](http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016...om_god/1274750) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/85 "2017-06-14T18:43:45Z")
Does anyone actually believe that Bernie Sanders didn’t know the answer to his question before asking it? In most confirmation hearings I would speculate that almost all of the answers are known by the committee prior to the hearings. Therefore then what are the purpose of the hearings? The are for political grandstanding. In this case Sanders wanted paint Vought as an Islamaphobe for the media, not to gather information for Sanders to make his decision. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/86 "2017-06-14T19:55:55Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Does anyone actually believe that Bernie Sanders didn’t know the answer to his question before asking it? In most confirmation hearings I would speculate that almost all of the answers are known by the committee prior to the hearings. > > Therefore then what are the purpose of the hearings? The are for political grandstanding. In this case Sanders wanted paint Vought as an Islamaphobe for the media, not to gather information for Sanders to make his decision. Absolutely true. And I would swear to that on a stack of bibles!! ---
**Author:** ![yornmine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e480ec/32.png) [@yornmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yornmine)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540/87 "2017-06-14T20:49:41Z")
If the Islamic belief that you get to screw 72 virgins by slaughtering innocent civilians doesn’t disqualify one from public office, then neither does strict doctrinal Christian belief. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-belief-that-non-christians-are-damned-be-a-bar-to-public-office-in-us/788540.md?page=4)