The View from Gehena
Some think Christianity is a form of intimidation and have argued "...if any given religion is right, and said religion says 'follow or go to hell' (which many do), then if you do not follow you will go to hell".
This is a simplistic Fundamentalist viewpoint. Are there any Fundamentalists on this category? In my opinion a better way to describe the situation would be as follows:
God through a dynamic process of exhortation and testing has called and is calling certain people. The person who responds to this call will delight in the precepts found in the Bible. He will not find them burdensome. The dynamic process includes following the aforementioned precepts and it conditions one for heaven.
Those, then, who enter heaven are already in agreement with God. They appreciate His precepts. They get along well with others who appreciate His precepts. They are looking forward to spending eternity in the presence of the God who established these precepts.
Now those who have no interest in these precepts or in becoming conditioned by them, who have no interest in following what is called the "narrow way,' who find those following it to be insufferable boors, would have little interest in an eternity of this.
"Hell" is a poetic expression based upon "Gehena," the place outside the city where rubbish was burned. This is a consistent expression because those who enter heaven will have certain aspects "burned away." Those who barely make it are said to have entered as though through fire. And those who won't be part of the Heavenly City would be relegated to Gehena. Since God created the City & established the way into it, the matter of who is responsible for those who set up camp in Gehena is moot. It is for the mutual convenience of both: God wants only a certain sort of person in His city, and the Gehenaites don't really want to be in His City.
I have heard agnostics hope for a "passing grade" sort of heaven, that is, if they were at least 51% "good," they ought, in their opinion, to go to heaven. Unfortunately, this "path" is nowhere to be found in the Bible (if one happens to believe in the Bible).
An atheist argued "Then whose interpretation of God is it? Christian, Jewish, Muslim? There are many possibilities. So whatever the chance may be that God exists, the chance any specific God exists is lower by far".
The Christian, Jew & Muslim all believe in the same God. The Jews accept the same Old Testament that the Protestants & Eastern Orthodox Church do (which is the same as the Catholics except that the Catholics add the Apocrypha). The Muslims accept only the Pentateuch &, perhaps Joshua (if memory serves me) from the Old Testament. The Jews think the Messiah hasn't come yet. The Christians think Jesus is the Messiah. The Muslims think Jesus was a prophet like Mohammed. There are, indeed, different interpretations, but only one God.
In terms of numbers, the Jewish/Christian/Muslim combination (believing in the same God) exceeds all others. Next comes Hinduism and Buddhism.
Hinduism hypothesizes a WILL (Brahma), not unlike that described by Schopenhauer -- in fact, Schopenhauer, who was familiar with Hinduism, acknowledges the similarity. From Schopenhauer's standpoint, the WILL was NOT God. However, there are some similarities: The individual souls (Atman) were originally in Brahma's image but set about their own quests. However, Brahma set up (or otherwise involves) certain precepts and Brahma is not mocked, whatsoever the Atman soweth that shall he also reap [in successive incarnations]. There are similarities between certain aspects of Hindu Philosophy and Christianity, but Hinduism's Brahma isn't a God per se. There are certain forms of Hinduism that respect or follow certain demigods like Shiva & Krishna.
Gautama Buddha came out of Hinduism. He tried the many different interpretations of his day and finally, in exasperation, resolved to sit under a Bo Tree until he achieved enlightenment. Buddha did achieve enlightenment, but his insights did not involve God. If you are a traditional Mahayana Buddhist, you do not believe in God. Later on, a fellow named (if memory serves me) Amitahba, made a slight modification to Buddhism. Amitahba claimed to be a Bodhisatva (one who has achieved Nirvana but stays behind on earth in order to teach the less advanced) and promised if you called on the name of Amitahba (even at the point of death) you would go to a Paradise -- not Heaven in the Christian sense, and not the merging with Brahma accomplished by Nirvana, but a pretty nice place. Some of those taking Amitahba up on his offer preferred the idea of his paradise to Nirvana.
Taoism has a large number of followers. The great teacher Lao Tzu said his life's work was over & he was leaving. Some of his followers begged him to write his teachings down; so in a very short period of time he wrote what has been called The Tao. It does not involve a God.
I have neglected the minor religions, but, in my opinion, there are not a large number of Gods to choose from.
During my atheist phase I was inclined to take William James' and Sir James G. Frazer's view of religion, but the time came when I suspected that God probably did exist, and so I set about seeking him through a comparative study of religions (and philosophies).
If one stands at the border of Gehena and looks outward at the heavy fog and believes in his heart that nothing other than Gehena exists, then he has no reason to leave. But if he thinks there is a Heavenly City out there some place and is frustrated because he doesn't know which path to take, I would urge him to begin his journey anyway. From the standpoint of having completed mine, I can testify that God will not forever hide himself from those who diligently seek him.
Lawrence
