The man on the desert island

Now ... I'm going to warn you that this is going to run for weeks and weeks and you might have to concentrate a bit. But it will be worth it.

How do you get to heaven?

This is a question that I used to pose my students when I taught them in France. It was the beginning of the whole year's religion course. It is, of course, a pretty basic and yet a fundamentally important question. In fact, it is the only question really worth asking - because it is the only question that your life depends on. Not this life ... but your eternal life. Funny then, how people don't often ask themselves it.

So that is what I'd ask the boys ... how do you get to heaven? And they would answer in the ways that most of us would answer: you try to do what's right, don't kill people, don't steal sweets, don't annoy Father Rowe, do your homework. The older ones would add: respect yourself and others, try to stand up for what is right. We could add to the list, I'm sure.

But then the question became, "but how do you know that this is what you have to do? Why shouldn't I kill people? Why shouldn't I be beastly to kittens? Why shouldn't I take your sweets if I want to? Why shouldn't I do or say anything I want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else?"

Well, they would answer, that is what we have been told to do (by parents, the Church, other people who we respect).

But are those people right? How do you know they are right? Are they always right? Are they right because you decide they're right (I can persuade myself that a second cream cake and a third sherry is right ... but that doesn't make it so!) Is there something else that makes them right - something greater than them?

And what if there is no one to tell you what to do or how to behave? What then? Can you still get to heaven?

What about a man on a desert island???