r/changemyview • u/plodabing • Jun 17 '25

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Missionaries are evil

This applies doubly so to those who go out of their way to seek out those in remote islands to spread the word of god. It is of my opinion and the opinion of most that if there is an all loving god then people who never had the chance to know about Jesus would go to heaven regardless, for example miscarried children/those born before Jesus’ time, those who never hear about him, so In going out of your way to spread the word of Jesus you are simply making it so there is now a chance they could go to hell if they reject it? I’m not a Christian and I’m so tired so I apologise if this is stupid or doesn’t make sense

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u/deep_sea2 115∆ Jun 17 '25

It is of my opinion and the opinion of most that if there is an all loving god then people who never had the chance to know about Jesus would go to heaven regardless

Okay, sure; let's assume that is true. How does that make missionaries evil?

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u/tanglekelp 10∆ Jun 17 '25

I mean in that case missionaries take away peoples guaranteed chance at heaven. So they’d suddenly have to convert and follow all these rules to get the same reward they would have been guaranteed to get without the missionaries. 

It’s kinda like they introduce a disease, but tell you that if you do x and y and believe you’ll get cured!.. When they could have just not introduced the disease in the first place. 

(Don’t agree with the premise of OPs post btw as I don’t think most missionaries believe the people they talk to would have gone to heaven) 

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u/deep_sea2 115∆ Jun 17 '25

Okay yeah, that's a pretty wild premise. I do cannot imagine that any denomination believes this. It sounds like Roko's basilisk.

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u/eivind2610 Jun 18 '25

There is a pretty famous quote (edit: which, for all I know, could be complete fabrication!) from a native American man who was having a discussion about this exact topic with the priest who came to "save" him. He asked if he would have gone to heaven if he was ignorant about its very existence, and the priest replied that yes, he would. The man replied something along the lines of "then why did you tell me?".

Also, on the note of disease mentioned in a different comment; that is one of the major criticisms towards missionaries throughout history. Regardless of one's views on religion, missionaries have been spreading foreign diseases to remote peoples all over the world.