You are stating there is no difference between them - I can point to an atheist denies God and Agnostic doesn’t. The door is still open to the Agnostic. He can still choose, even after death.
Again the common thread in most religions and ethical philosophies is the golden rule. Even atheistic Buddhism has compassion at the forefront.
But there is such a thing as an end point in time, for the Western religious traditions. We are not talking here about Eastern religions. Is it necessary to remind you, a Catholic, that we are not to follow Eastern religions? They have a radically different view of personhood, and in particular of God’s personhood. Some Eastern faiths believe in reincarnation. Catholics believe you have one earthly life and you are not recycled.
For the rest of your comments, there are two different phenomena being discussed: (1) belief and (2) cumulative deeds of one’s life.
On the first, one has to distinguish between sincerely tentative skepticism, given lack of the gift of faith and no environment in which to nurture that, and willful rejection despite very different opportunities. We are taught that God considers the individual’s opportunity and graces afforded to him, or the lack of either, as well as (obviously) the individual’s ability to discern and accept, relative to intellectual and emotional capacity.
On the second, both the Particular Judgment and the General Judgment will involve everyone, regardless of faith affiliation or lack thereof. Thus, charitable Buddhists and honest, generous Agnostics would undoubtedly be welcomed into God’s friendship more quickly than Christian murderers. Just understand that there is no “choice” beyond death. (That is the problem with your above post.) If the person is judged to be worthy of God’s friendship but needs further purgation (which most saved souls will need), that soul, regardless of faith affiliation, will eventually realize the Beatific Vision after that purgation and (which in the case of the Agnostic would include illumination, confirmation of God’s reality).
None of us is in a position to foresee either our own, or anyone else’s Particular Judgment, despite how we believe we have lived and/or others have lived. We live in Hope, as believers, but not Presumption. Nevertheless, the practical reality is that most people find it difficult to stay perpetually moral and ethical without a guiding faith tradition than with. This is especially true when life crises or extraordinary temptations arise. There are of course good-hearted atheists and agnostics; it is just harder to resist personal temptation and to remain steadily moral without a framework of some kind; it is not impossible. I have no doubt that there are souls in heaven (and certainly in purgatory) who affirmed no religious faith during their lives.
From CAF’s
Ask An Apologist:
**Why is repentance after death “too late”? **
Why do you assume that a man who spent a lifetime denying God exists would suddenly want to be with God should he be confronted by God immediately after death? Why do you assume that the transgression of deliberately denying the existence of the infinite, eternal God is merely a finite, temporal transgression?
Something to keep in mind is the nature of choice. Angels, because they are pure spirit, made one eternal choice either for or against God. Because they do not have material bodies subject to the limitations of change, their choice was eternal and irrevocable. Human beings, because they have bodies, can change over the course of their lifetimes; but radical, life-altering change from the shaping of a lifetime of choices is as rare as a deathbed conversion precisely because our choices shape us into who we are. At death, that lifetime of shaping through the choices we make becomes as permanent and irrevocable as the one eternal choice made by the angels.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=293626
Also see this from Our Sunday Visitor:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church succinctly sums up that teaching: “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death” (No. 1022). That retribution is the ultimate verdict on a life, the end results of all its merits and its deserts.
Such a verdict, the Catechism goes on to say, is given “in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven – through a purification or immediately – or immediate and everlasting damnation” (No. 1022).
In short: Immediately after death comes an individual (“particular”) judgment by God. The souls of those who died in friendship with Him either go to heaven or begin the purifying process (purgatory) that ultimately leads to heaven. Those who died without being in friendship with God go to hell.
osv.com/TCANav/TCAQuestionoftheDay/Jan24282011/tabid/8275/Default.aspx
