Rod Dreher is aghast at the fact that Americans don't assent to the views of "orthodox" Christianity. The problem that many secular and religious people on the extremes don't get (the anti-devout and the devout) is the cognitive complexity, and, frankly, the fundamental incoherency of the religious beliefs of most humans. In The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival and Cult Formation the authors report survey data from the early 1980s which shows that most American Christians would not definitely deny that Hindus could achieve salvation:
| Missouri Lutheran | South. Baptist | Assemblies of God | All Protestants | Roman Catholics | |
| Being of the Hindu religion would definitely prevent salvation | 40 | 32 | 41 | 14 | 2 |
(the above data are not totally comparable to the Pew results, but they show the broad extent of these sentiments a generation ago)
Dreher may be more rigorous than most (he's been a member of three Christian denominations, as well as not being religious), but even he isn't immune to putting rigor to the side when needful. Rod Dreher did not dig deep into reasoned critiques of Catholic doctrines until those criticisms might be some utility. This is not atypical.
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You'll still cook in hell, Razib. We happen to know that you are an atheist Muslim, which is the worst kind of all.
It's not the worst kind.
The worst kind would be if he converts to being an atheist Christian.
Actually, in terms of reaction from the mainstream, the very worst would be to convert to a highly deviant offshoot of Islam - especially one that posits a post-Muhammadan prophet.
Baha'is, who seem very much "Hindu" in terms of all-you-can-eat, anything goes inclusiveness, are a case in point.
Iran is remarkably tolerant of its Jewish population, who are seen as Iranians first and foremost (i.e. they are seen as part of the "us", just like Jews in the modern West, and very much unlike Jews in the pre-modern West). On the other hand, anti-Baha'i progroms are common. Same in Pakistan with the Ahmadis.
Neville Chamberlain Atheist Christian is surely the worst.
This comment thread reminds me of when I was traveling in N. Ireland in the 1990s -- I was told to expect to be asked if I was protestant or catholic. When I suggested that I might say that I'm a Buddhist, then I was told to expect to be asked if I was a protestant buddhist or a catholic buddhist.
Therefore, Razib, a related question might have been asked in N. Ireland during the 1980s and '90s: "Being of the a Hindu religion would definitely diminish survivability in Belfast."
The Catholics at least are (atypically!) entirely right about their denominational beliefs in this instance. In Catholic theology, being a non-Catholic is not good and being of another religion is downright bad, but it's not necessarily doom.
The same is often true in Protestant theology, but lacking a official body of doctrine it tends to vary from church to church. If I had to guess I'd say surveys of individual churches would tend to show very high or very low percentages in their answers, with these 32% figures being averages.
About Razib's apostate status and possible punishment: being atheist but not making a big deal of it is probably the safest. Being atheist and saying so is shocking, but not necessarily a death sentence (you have lost faith, but not joined the enemy's faith, atheism not being a recognized organized opponent). But conversion to another religion, that would merit the death penalty in all four major schools of Sunni law as well as in the major Shia school. The caveat is that the founder of the hanafis (probably the largest Sunni denomination) was always looking for the least militant position and on this issue he took the line that apostates deserve to be killed IF they do not repent, but should be given every chance to repent. Some people interpret that to mean that they cannot really be killed because how can you know they may not repent in the future? On the other hand, the hanbalis will probably kill you EVEN if you repent...Meanwhile, under current Pakistani law, there is no penalty for apostasy but Razib could be sentenced to death for insulting the holy prophet (a crime for which the ONLY punishment is death, per the Pakistani Shariah court's interpretation of this law). Enjoy.