There is NO GOD!

[Jedda]

What if a few people lived on a secluded island and never got word or a God ? Maybe they knew of something watching over them but they didn’t heard about Jesus…would those people be dammed to hell?

group B
Now what if this second group of people grew up in a overbearing family or society and never had the chance to learn about Jesus (or God) and they had to follow what they knew or their parents knew and as they grew up they just stopped wondering because it was considered “bad” to do so…Does that make sense?

What would happen to them? Hell?

facts or opinions… it don’t matter …what ever you think

 

[Genesis315]

Neither would be necessarily damned. Sin has an objective component, and a subjective one. The subjective one is culpability. That is why we need a divine Judge to search the hearts of men and see who is guilty of what, who has contrition, who has responded to grace and the Holy Spirit, etc. If it’s not your fault for not knowing Jesus, it won’t be counted against you. Of course, all people have the natural law written on their hearts and a conscience to alert them to it and all people have the ability to repress that conscience and violate that natural law. So, again, God will judge all with justice and mercy

 

[jack_hawkins]

it’s quite simple, people are judged by the light they have had

I have always believed this even before I read the relevant part of the Catechism

this must be the case since Jews are covered by the resurrection for example

Muslims will claim that Native Americans had mosques ebfore the arrival of European settlers in an attempt to show the universality of Islam, but Christianity has no need for such inventions

 

[RachelB]

Which doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone who has never heard of God will go to heaven. It just means that God has a way of reaching out to people who have never heard of Him. They will have the same choice as the rest of us. How that works is a mystery, but we know that God will extend the same free will and mercy to every one. He’s good, and he’s good to everybody.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

One might not know of Jesus, but Romans 1:19-32 seems to indicate that all are capable of knowing of God.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20]** Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; **
21] for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.
22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
24]
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
26]
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,

27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
28]
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.

29] They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips,
30] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31] foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32] Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.

 

[Tietjen]

What if a few people lived on a secluded island and never got word or a God ? Maybe they knew of something watching over them but they didn’t heard about Jesus…would those people be dammed to hell?

group B
Now what if this second group of people grew up in a overbearing family or society and never had the chance to learn about Jesus (or God) and they had to follow what they knew or their parents knew and as they grew up they just stopped wondering because it was considered “bad” to do so…Does that make sense?

What would happen to them? Hell?

facts or opinions… it don’t matter …what ever you think

Perhaps you might view this as a cop-out but it is not for us (man) to judge. That judgement is between the Creator alone. However, I believe that God (the Creator) is merciful and when He judges the individuals in your scenerios He will do so fairly based the situations and the choices made in their individual lives.

 

[faelpsanfeel]

Muslims will claim that Native Americans had mosques ebfore the arrival of European settlers in an attempt to show the universality of Islam, but Christianity has no need for such inventions

Well unless you count Mormons

 

[Publisher]

God’s grace always provides a way to offer His gifts…there would be a way provided.

 

[John_Hiner]

The arguments which propose great hope for these groups of people are probably reckless. There is a vast difference between ‘not being certainly damned’ and ‘having a reasonable likelihood of salvation.’

Cardinal Ratzinger’s reflections on these arguments are well worth considering: “Conscience and Truth.”

Though arguments about “ignorance” or “erroneous conscience” might exculpate people from particular sins, as Cardinal Ratzinger observed, there is a deep and prior sin from which “not having heard the Gospel” does not free a person. Only an extreme and extraordinary grace would be able to save a person who had only his conscience and fallen sensibilities to discern its promptings.

In fact, the faith is necessary for almost all people, if they are to be saved; and we cannot assume that people who are not strictly keeping Jesus’ commands have any reasonable likelihood of salvation.

It is *possible *to survive falling naked from a 20-story building; however, one should not expect many people to do so.

Please read “Conscience and Truth.”

Pax Christi vobiscum.

John Hiner

 

[Unitas]

If you look at it anthropologically, every civilization from every era on earth, separated by time and location, has had some code of conduct which dictated what was good behavior and what was bad.

Some were more comprehensive than others, but still strikingly similiar to one another. What you must ask yourself is why that is.

I believe it is because of our soul–our link to God, as being made in his image–that gives us an almost intrinsic, unlearned knowledge of good and evil. Like an artist’s signature on a work of art; there’s a small piece of himself in his work. It’s the little “Made in Heaven” sticker on our souls.

It’s that little bit of God’s light that we recognize inside of us; a wee bit of revelation of Himself. If we nurture that small glimpse of God, it can hopefully unfold to a much more profound knowledge of God.

That’s not to say that if left alone in a vacuum a completely segregated people will develope Catholicism, all I’m saying is that it’s possible to know at least a little about God in a complete social vacuum. The natural Law everyone senses inside of them can attest to this.

Those that will never hear the gospel through mere unfortunate circumstance will not be judged on that basis but on their fidelity to the intrinsic Natural Law.

But in lieu of all this, one fact remains that it is our obligation as being human and gifted with intellect to pursue a more complete knowledge of our creator, to not remain complacent in our ignorance, counting on that ignorance to save us.

I’m not sure if that answers your question, but I hope it gives you a better understanding at least.