After Sunday School Reading: Salvation by Works Trumps Faith

For centuries, Christianity has been one of those religions that insists upon ideological conformity for eternal reward: “No-one comes to the Father, but through me” (John 14:6). But the Bible also emphasizes good deeds as a key to salvation: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Though wars have literally been fought over the question of which passage dominates – stop and think about that – the easiest way to reconcile the two is to suppose that, for strict Christians, good deeds are necessary, but not alone sufficient, to secure one’s place in Heaven. Tough luck for Muslims, Jews, agnostics, and atheists.

But the times are changing:

Sixty-five percent of respondents said — again — that other religions could lead to eternal life. But this time, to clear up any confusion, Pew asked them to specify which religions. The respondents essentially said all of them. And they didn’t stop there. Nearly half also thought that atheists could go to heaven — dragged there kicking and screaming, no doubt — and most thought that people with no religious faith also could go.

What on earth does this mean?

One very plausible explanation is that Americans just want good things to come to good people, regardless of their faith. As Alan Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College told me: “We are a multicultural society, and people expect this American life to continue the same way in heaven.” He explained that in our society, we meet so many good people of different faiths that it’s hard for us to imagine God letting them go to hell.

This is the right result. Like it or not, in a stable, pluralistic society, where one must come face-to-face with the revolutionary realization that different people can be moral too, there is simply no place for a religion that insists it has a monopoly on Truth. In the modern world, the faith is worthless that does not provide a place for just dealings with non-believers. Fundamentalist religion can continue its century-long death, with periodic revivals, but at least it’s on its way out.