Getting to Heaven

The Institute for Studies of Religion based at Baylor University has put out survey results on who Americans think will get to heaven. Interestingly, most of us are willing to think that a lot of folks are going to make it.

According to the results:
Percentage of people who said they thought "half or more" of the following
will get into heaven:
Average Americans: 54%
Christians: 72%
Jews: 46%
Buddhists: 37%
Muslims: 34%
Nonreligious people: 29%

So, a a majority of people in America, a nation that is overwhelmingly Christian, feels that at least half of all "average" Americans will make it to heaven; nearly half of Americans think that at least half of all Jews will go there too; roughly a third of those surveyed believe that half of all Buddhists and Muslims will make it, and nearly a third believe that half of all non-religious people will make it to heaven.

Rodney Stark, one of the premier sociologists of religion who is a co-director of the Institute, notes that, in earlier such surveys, as in the 1960's, the dominant belief was that only Christians would go to heaven. Opinions have obviously changed. There is one other result of interest in this survey; 29% of people had no opinion about the ultimate fate of people.

So, how do you feel? Do you think that at least 50% of the 'average' Americans will go to heaven? Do you think that even non-religious people will get there whether they believe in heaven, or in God, or not? Do you think people from non-Christian faiths will be in heaven?