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Author: 69BookWorM69

Sep 4th 2012 at 5:58:33 PM

This reminds me of The Aunt Susan Theory: The book ''American Grace'' (written by Professors Robert Putnam and David Campbell) covers social science research on this area. Putnam and Campbell suggest that because most Americans are "intimately acquainted" with people from other religions, we have more positive feelings towards other religions and are less likely to engage in acts of religious intolerance.  The theory is that we all have an "Aunt Susan" in our extended families who is from another religion and/or have "Aunt Susans" in our lives who are not related to us but are friends or co-workers. We know these people to be good and find it unfair that they should be condemned in the afterlife because they didn't happen to follow the correct religion. Since we find this to be unfair, we don't condemn them, and by extension, fiction depicting the afterlife allows for merit to trump faith. After all, God is supposed to be just and merciful and infinitely better than any human being, so if we think something is unfair, God must agree and act accordingly.

I won't say this is unique to America, because I think it may also be applicable to secular societies generally. If religion generally isn't important, than following the right one isn't important either. If you need or want it, possible Scriptural support for this idea may be found in the quote "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2 in the KJV)

It must also be said that there's a practical reason for this solution to the problem of the afterlife: most creators want their works to appeal to the widest possible audience, and saying that one faith is superior to another (even implicitly) risks alienating some portion of the potential audience. Hence, if a particular faith is said to have "gotten it right," chances are it will be an unlikely choice and it will be played as a joke (thereby putting the majority in the same boat, salvation-wise), unless the audience is sectarian or the plot involves RageAgainstTheHeavens (as the OP noted).  See also SecularHero.

Possible Literature example from Aunt Dimity Down Under:
* Ruth and Louise Pym were devout churchgoers, and their great-grand niece Bree isn't, yet they all seem to subscribe to this idea. Part of Bree's funeral oration runs:
--> Auntie Ruth and Auntie Louise weren't bothered by my looks or my accent, and they didn't care where I came from. I didn't know them for much more than a day, but sometimes that's all it takes to see into a person's heart. Their hearts were pure gold. I don't know whether I believe in God and I don't have much use for religion--sorry, Vicar--but if heaven exists, I know they're up there. And if there's such a thing as a guardian angel, then I have two of the best.
Come the following spring, Lori, the narrator, goes on to tell us the Bible verse on the sisters' shared headstone "reflected their greathearted view of the cosmos." It reads "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwellleth in God, and God in him. --John IV:16"