Do people from other religions go to heaven?

Good question. It's a question that was asked by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 70% of Americans said they thought practitioners of religions other than their own religion could still achieve eternal life.

The result was met with disbelief by some who consider their own religion the "only" way to go to heaven.

So in August, Pew asked the question again. 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...

In fact, in the most recent survey, Pew asked people what they thought determined whether a person would achieve eternal life. Nearly as many Christians said you could achieve eternal life by just being a good person as said that you had to believe in Jesus...

Also, many Christians apparently view their didactic text as flexible. According to Pew’s August survey, only 39 percent of Christians believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, and 18 percent think that it’s just a book written by men and not the word of God at all...

A salient reminder that the "fundamentalist" Christians who so often make the headlines and television programs are not the only Christians in this country.