When you're young and in Sunday School, you hear all of the appropriate reasons you should be a Christain—Jesus saved you from your sins; God loves you; You get to live in paradise for eternity; God sacrificed his son for you; It's the right thing to do. But there is one thing that is never talked about outright. Believing in God, in my understanding, is the logical choice.

I know, that's kind of a weird statement. Your relationship with God isn't supposed to be about logic necessarily. Sure it's about learning the bible, and forming a relationship with God, but logic? So hear me out here.

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” - Jesus in John 14:6

Jesus tells us that the only way to get to heaven is through him. The church has interpreted this to mean that there is no way to go to heaven without believing he was the son of God, died on the cross, and was resurrected 3 days later. So, we want to go to heaven because it's paradise. It's supposed to be better than we could even put into words, and all Christians go there—all of the people who believe in Jesus. And most of all, going to heaven means we won't go to hell, which is eternal punishment.

So, if we're to look at it from a worldly perspective, Christianity claims that there are two outcomes for us humans: Heaven and Hell. The only way into heaven and out of hell is through Jesus.

Now Christianity is a bit of a special case when it comes to religions. Many other religions are open, or non-exclusive, in the sense that they don't necessarily require you to believe in their specific god(s) to go to their version of heaven/paradise. Some just want you to believe in a higher power. Some want you to believe in a god, regardless of which it is. Others are less specific, like Budhism, which requires you to be the best person you can be to obtain Nirvana. So, since they are non-exclusive, you can technically be a Christian, and try to meet the requirements of the other religions as well.

Now, I get that this is a bit tricky, because choosing backup religions isn't exactly what Jesus would have been happy about, and I don't think that God would be happy about this kind of religious gaming. I'm not saying this is what I do or what you should do either. But since Christianity is an exclusive religion, it demands a choice, one way or another. And if your choice is between eternal torture or eternal paradise, I'm pretty sure most people are going to choose paradise.

And honestly, I'm not sure why this isn't talked about more. I know that choosing the best option probably isn't what God had in mind. He wants a relationship, according to the Bible. But to me, trying to build that relationship seems to make the most sense. If I'm wrong, and Christianity isn't the true religion, then maybe I'll get a lesser spot in a different religion's afterlife. Still, it seems the stakes are higher in Christianity, and therefore, I'd like to keep myself out of the worse outcome at all costs.

But who knows? Maybe Christianity's hell isn't the worst outcome. I'm working off of the limited knowledge I have of other religions, most of which was learned through a college course about cults, and another about alternate religions. If I'm missing something, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.