Do atheists go to heaven?
For most atheists, the obvious answer is, “No.”
Ironically, atheists agree with traditional Christians on this point. It’s just that atheists don’t think anyone else goes to heaven, either. And traditional Christians think that atheists go to hell—an idea that atheists reject.
Then again, Christians and atheists can’t even agree on how to define “atheism.”
- Christians tend to define atheism as a belief that there is no God.
- Atheists tend to define atheism as a lack of belief in gods.
What strikes me about both of these definitions is that they’re all about belief or lack thereof. And these days belief is seen as something we do with our head, meaning with our intellect.
But Psalm 14 and its variation in Psalm 53 start out:
Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
Not “in their heads,” but “in their hearts.” Saying in your head that there is no God, as your average present-day atheist does, is very different from saying in your heart that there is no God.
So before we get to whether atheists go to heaven, let’s look more closely at what the Bible means when it talks about believing or not believing in God.
For more on atheists and the afterlife, please click here to read on.
