Will I go to hell?

[grandfather]

Yes.
If I do not believe in a source of objective truth and reality,why would I NOT take up any woman’s proposition (a purely theoretical scenario in my case)

One’s moral code comes from one’s religion. Of course that shapes personal behavior.

Religion also tells us the consequences of violating the moral law as well as what happens when we keep it.

Knowing the positive and negative consequences of our actions shapes our actions.

Without religion we do not even know that being a drunk cheater is a bad thing.

Fear of hell and the hope of heaven does influence behavior, but is not the ultimate force that keeps us from doing evil. The thing that allows one to be faithful to a spouse, sober, truthful, kind, is God’s grace. Grace gives us the power to overcome tempations and turn from the slavery of sin, to be free.

 

[Viviphilia]

Will I go to hell?

Only God decides who will go to hell.

The people who are pretending to judge you are trying to assume God’s role and they themselves risk his wrath.

 

[Theophilous]

In Romans 10:9 it says “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

As an atheist, you refuse those two conditions.

You stated that you are a moral person. Not so.

Romans 10:10-12 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Let’s try a simple test. Have you ever told a lie? Even a little one, a long time ago? Then you are what? You are a liar, and have broken the 9th commandment about not bearing false witness.

Have you ever stolen anything? Not even a paperclip from work? Ever? If you have you are a thief, and have broken the commandment, Thou shalt not steal.

Have you ever looked at a woman and wanted to have sex with her? Then you have lusted in your heart and as Jesus has told us, you committed adultery with her in your heart. (Matthew 5:28)

I could go on further, but you admit that you are a lying thief and fornicator. For these and other sins, you fall short of the standard of perfection that is required for a man to make it into heaven on his own merits.

There is only one way to be saved and go to heaven. You have rejected that way. It won’t be God that condemns you to hell. It will be you that condemns yourself because you reject the ONLY path to salvation.

Jesus said in John 14:6, " I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except by me."

Reject him, and you condemn yourself. And you will be in hell for eternity knowing that you put yourself there. I would urge you that if you cannot be a good catholic, then be a good other kind of christian. But don’t reject Christ.

 

[Justinian_III]

Only God decides who will go to hell.

The people who are pretending to judge you are trying to assume God’s role and they themselves risk his wrath.

Now YOU are saying that someone in particular risks His wrath. Thus, according to you, YOU risk his wrath as well. You are trying to play the role of God.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I am an atheist. I was raised a Catholic, but recently stopped believing in God because of intellectual objections (which are a topic for another discussion, not this one). I still am a moral person, and my behavior hasn’t changed since I stopped believing. Most of my friends still think that I am Catholic, because the only change in my behavior that could possibly tip them off is that I no longer go to mass. So my question is, if I am wrong about Catholicism, do you believe that it is possible for a former-Catholic atheist who lives a moral life to get into heaven?

Oh, and one last thing: please don’t try to psychoanalyze me. I am not asking this because I’m afraid of hell (I don’t even believe it exists) and I do not secretly believe in God and am not secretly angry at him. Let’s stick to the relevant topic please!

Well, Hell does exist. I had the peculiar and I suppose rather rare experience of **my own father **turning up in my room the night he died. He started with an apology for a lifetime of deliberate cruelty, we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this absolutely terrifying scream and disappeared. I can assure you that something terrified him to the core.

However the interesting part is that I was an atheist at the time, and didn’t want to believe what I’d seen. So I did my best to ignore it. But I became a Christian about four years later anyway for other reasons. I have had other spiritual experiences since (quite a lot of them in fact), but that one happened while I was still an atheist.

But that hasn’t been your experience. Taking you at your word, you are a former Catholic whom I assume never really believed in God, and for intellectual reasons you claim you cannot believe in God.

I can’t judge you as Christ told us not to, and in addition I haven’t stood in your shoes. However as I said, Hell exists, and I assume Heaven does also, whatever your intellectual objections might be.

So on the day you front up to judgement, which IS going to happen, you will have your life played back in front of you, and you’ll see yourself as you really are, in the light of God’s absolute perfect holiness. And that’s the nub. How perfect are you?

I’m afraid you’ll have to answer that, because that’s the basis on which you will or won’t get into heaven. And I don’t know you, so you’l have to judge yourself.

Which is what you’ll do anyway - “By your (own) words you will be acquitted, and by your (own) words you will be condemned”. If my experience of my father’s apparition was anything to go by, we judge ourselves in the divine light. My own father made comments like “I can’t believe how cruel and stupid I’ve been”; “I’ve been an absolute mongrel to you”; “What was I trying to prove?”; “There’s no hope for me. All I was expected to do was to look after my own family and I didn’t even do that!” etc.

Yet I can assure you that 5 minutes before he died, he wouldn not have admitted to those failings. So he was judging himself in his (own) words, and therefore fulfilling Christ’s statement “by your (own) words you will be condemned”.

Therefore it’s a bit pointless asking us whether you’ll go to hell, since your acquittal or condemnation will be in your own words, not ours.

 

[lulu88]

According to the Bible, there is no other name under Heaven, other than Jesus, by which you may be saved. So, although you may live a ‘moral life’ according to earthly standards, these ‘good works’ are like ‘filthy rags’ to God, if you reject Jesus. So, since you believe there is no God, if He does indeed exist, would you want to know? Because God will not allow someone into Heaven based on ‘willful ignorance’ or because you were baptized as baby. Jesus died for you, which is a historical fact. All that is required to get to Heaven is placing your faith & trust in Him for doing that out of love for you.

Please consider accepting Jesus as your personal Lord & Savior.

In Christ,
Steve.

**
If I just believe and accept God can I also NOT participate in church attendence, communion and keeping the Ten commandments.?

Faith is an action also on our part. We serve Christ. We are his followers. Saved, trying to stay saved, past, present and future, since its not a one time deal here. Its how U lived a Good Christian life through grace that led you to do good works. Grace saves us but we must endure till the end." Faith without works is dead" "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.** " Jesus

lulu

Blessings

 

[grandfather]

Which is what you’ll do anyway - “By your (own) words you will be acquitted, and by your (own) words you will be condemned”. If my experience of my father’s apparition was anything to go by, we judge ourselves in the divine light. My own father made comments like “I can’t believe how cruel and stupid I’ve been”; “I’ve been an absolute mongrel to you”; “What was I trying to prove?”; “There’s no hope for me. All I was expected to do was to look after my own family and I didn’t even do that!” etc.

Yet I can assure you that 5 minutes before he died, he wouldn not have admitted to those failings. So he was judging himself in his (own) words, and therefore fulfilling Christ’s statement “by your (own) words you will be condemned”.

.

I do not doubt your experience happened. We pray for all of the souls of the departed and should not allow an private experience like this stop us from this spiritual work. The scream does not necessarily prove your father is lost. He may have many imperfections to be burned away. It is a work of spiritual mercy to pray for the dead and your prayers and forgiveness could be very helpful to him.

 

[scameter18]

If you die in a state of mortal sin, you go to Hell. Catholic, Jew, atheist, whatever.

If you die in a state of grace, you go to Heaven, directly or by way of Purgatory first. Catholic, Jew, atheist, whatever.

So, the devil is in the details-- when you die, are you in a state of grace or not?

Objectively, apostacy is grave matter and would place you in mortal sin.

Subjectively, do you have full knowledge and free will? We cannot say, that is for God to judge. And, as the old saying goes, between the bridge and the water, there is time to repent. So, do we really know looking on from the outside? No.

The answer to your question is that it is possible for any person to go to Heaven and any person to go to Hell. It depends upon the state of our soul when we die.

This

And:
Catechism 2125:

Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion.61 The imputability of this offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances. “Believers can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion.”

 

[ccmnxc]

Just for clarification, are you looking for the opinions of Catholics or what Catholics do/should believe based on doctrine? Thanks.