I am a frequent visitor of Campus Ministry. More often than not, you can see me sitting in one of the chairs or the couch in there, teasing one of my friends or vise-versa. As I lay there upon the couch, I start to think about my own views on God. Most Christians will tell you that it states within the Bible that if you do not follow Jesus and His teachings, and you do not recognize Him as the Christ, then you are to be damned to Hell. As a catholic, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that I should follow His teachings. However, I do not believe that if you are a genuinely good person and don't believe in Jesus that you will go to Hell. I mean, Gandhi and the Dali Llama do not believe in Jesus as the Christ, and you expect me to believe that they are condemned to Hell? They are two of the most compassionate and holy people that have walked the face of the earth. I cannot believe that they are sentenced to Hell. However, according to "Christian Scripture", if you do not believe in God and His teachings, you go to Hell. How does one get around this pickle? How does one explain that those who do not believe in Trinity go to Heaven? If one does not believe that Jesus is the Christ, then how can they go to God's Kingdom?
As is explained in the Bible, God granted us free will. We as humans are allowed to do as we wish, believe in what we want. God does have the power to control us, but He has decided not to for the fact that he loves us and has given us this gift of freedom. Because He has given us this gift, He must have known that not everyone would follow Christianity. So He allowed us to find other religions that would lead us to Him, different ways to find Him. Now most religions out there have two main teachings that all their other teachings follow: respect and love. It can be found in Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, etc. These two teachings are also the two teachings of Jesus (i.e.- Love one another as you love yourself, Treat one another as how you would want to be treated). But now we run into a problem. Not every religion has a God, and not every religion has just One God.
Buddhism is a good example of a religion that doesn't have a God. They believe that when one dies, they either are reincarnated or become a part of everything. Now, Christians believe that God is in everyone and everything. Wouldn't that be just another way to explain that they are becoming a part of God? I would like to think so. I would like to believe that Buddhist like Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha as he is better known as) and the Dali Llama would go to Heaven. Plus, Buddha's teachings and Jesus's teaching are almost exactly the same. It is amazing how these two brilliant teachers' teachings are so similar, teaching the same messages of love, kindness, respect, and compassion. How could this not be a coincidence? How could God's teaching not be in Buddhism? How could one not find God in this religion that teaches His teachings? It would be hard for one not to find aspects of Christian teachings within other religions of the world.
Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with about 300 million gods. Oddly enough, one of them happens to be Jesus. And with most of their gods (Jesus included) they are taught to respect and show compassion to one another. Now we can all agree (and some Hindu's do too) that the hierarchy system in Hinduism is a bit old fashioned and unfair. It would almost be like if we still followed the teachings in the Bible that stated what we can be sentenced to death for disobeying our parents (I don't know about you, but I don't want to be killed because I had a little argument with my mom). However this maybe, it does not mean God is not there.
As was stated before He gave us free will. This means we don't always follow His teaching to the all the time. No one is perfect. People even misinterpret the messages of their religions. Some Muslims misinterpret what a jihad is, and some Christians even take the Bible too literally or morph the messages in the Bible to back up their stances on any issue. Heck, even the Crusades and Inquisition weren't the best decision in Catholic history. We all make mistakes, no matter the religion, and God will forgive you.
God is all loving. He loves us so much He forgives our sins. Now the only question is, are we ready to accept God's forgiveness? If the answer is yes, then I believe God will bring us into Heaven. However, if someone is not sorry and does not accept God's forgiveness, then I believe then that the individual will go to Hell. Now I do not believe Hell to be all fire and brimstone. I like to think of Hell as just the total and complete absence from God. This is Hell in it of itself.
Josh Hite
Class of 2013
United States History and Religious Studies
