“Go to hell.”For most of us, it’s just a common, mildly obscene insult or simple dismissal. But for countless people of faith around the globe, hell is a very real place. We all want to go to heaven, and we certainly don’t want to go to hell. But the burning question that has reverberated throughout the religious world since time immemorial: “What determines where you go?”The stereotypical view is that good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell. But this isn’t the only answer. Some take more lenient views of requirements for salvation, while fundamentalists insist only one set of beliefs will allow you to receive eternal life.According to a study released by the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life, the way America answers these questions is surprisingly unified. One of the questions on the survey, which was distributed to 35,000 adults from diverse religious backgrounds, asked if the participant believed that “many religions can lead to eternal life.”About 70 percent of those interviewed said they did.According to the study, a large majority of Christians believe in multiple paths to salvation, along with 80 percent of Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus, and more than half of Muslims.But the most surprising are the numbers from the sources one might least suspect. Nearly 79 percent of Catholics answered yes, and 57 percent of those claiming to be evangelical Christians did as well.What is behind these numbers? What leads a nation to be so tolerant of many faith journeys?The fundamentalist, reactionary argument is the same argument that is employed for almost any issue that concerns contemporary belief: America is simply too relativist, too weak or too lazy to believe the hard truths taught by scripture. In the insular, pampered lives of modern Americans, the painful facts are ignored in favor of “an easy way out.”Steve Masters, director of the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry, and Mandy Trammel, associate director, said in an e-mail to the Daily Reveille, “The biblical viewpoint is summarized succinctly by Jesus, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6, ESV.) This relationship with God is the essence of eternal life. We believe the appropriate response to salvation through Christ is extreme gratitude that there is a way to God, rather than the expectation that there should be many ways to eternal life.”Haitham Sol, president of the Muslim Student Association, said Muslims believe that the teachings of Islam and belief in Mohammed are the most up-to date and most authenticated. Sol said that, to a Muslim, belief in Mohammed’s teachings are essential to doing what is right, and thus likely a requirement for getting into heaven. But Sol made one thing clear. When I asked him if someone who is not a Muslim will not go to heaven, he responded “I can’t say for certain that he will because I cannot say with certainty that I will.”I cannot say belief in one path to salvation is foolish.  But I choose to believe that, in the face of something as mysterious and terrifying as life beyond the grave, there is more than one possible answer. Until somebody comes up with a way to prove faith scientifically, we will honestly never know.  Believe what you will. That is your right. But I celebrate the diversity of faith in this country, and I am glad to see that I am not remotely alone in this. Who knows, maybe Haitham Sol’s benediction to me may ring true: “May Allah unite us all in heaven.” —-Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]