Could a Pagan God Convert and Go to Heaven? (& More Weird Questions)

MYS440: If a pagan god met Jesus and repented, could it go to heaven? Can demons be saved at all? On Catholic Answers Live, Jimmy Akin takes another stack of listener Weird Questions from host Cy Kellett, with Dom Bettinelli introducing the episode and reading your feedback.

The first answer turns on Catechism 393, which says the fallen angels go unforgiven because their choice is irrevocable, not because God’s mercy runs out. Jimmy sorts out what “god” can mean in Scripture, from the angels set over the nations in Deuteronomy and Daniel to the redeemed who become “partakers of the divine nature.”

Then the physics. Can angels travel faster than light? Jimmy explains how St. Thomas Aquinas places a bodiless spirit “in” a place, and how the expanding universe and the Alcubierre warp drive already bend the light-speed rule. Another listener asks whether demons single out people with latent psychic gifts, which leads to Gabriele Amorth’s curse model and the kind of study it would actually take to find out.

Some questions are practical. Does receiving Communion break the Ash Wednesday fast? Others are not. Would a pope in an alternate timeline have jurisdiction over ours, and would his infallible definitions bind us? Do stage magicians have real preternatural gifts? Jimmy recounts the argument between Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle and explains why Penn and Teller object to mentalists who let audiences think they’re psychic.

The second hour opens with Atlantis and Lemuria and the theory that a lost advanced civilization built the world’s pyramids, weighed against Göbekli Tepe, the Baghdad Battery, and the Antikythera mechanism. A listener asks whether any people are evil by descent from Cain or the giants, and Jimmy takes apart the “mark of Cain” racism of 19th-century America. Why did Jesus use bread and wine instead of lamb at the Last Supper? Could the saints empty hell through time-travel prayer? Can priests read souls in confession, as Padre Pio and the Curé of Ars seemed to? And is the angel of the Lord Jesus?

There’s room left for bison in tornadoes and for what would happen if humanity went extinct before the resurrection.

The episode closes with feedback on episode 429, Shared Death Experiences: why some people at a deathbed have one and others don’t, whether distressing SDEs exist, how much of the case rests on veridical evidence, and whether these experiences could ever be caught on camera.

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Links for this episode:

Chapters:

  • 0:00:00 – Intro
  • 0:00:40 – Programming note: Weird Questions Month
  • 0:00:51 – Today’s weird questions
  • 0:02:06 – Catholic Answers Live: Weird Questions with Cy Kellett
  • 0:03:31 – Jimmy’s Mysterious World plug on Catholic Answers Live
  • 0:04:16 – Would a pagan god who converted go to heaven? (Rescue Hamster 1734)
  • 0:10:39 – Jimmy’s Mysterious World plug on Catholic Answers Live (animal after-death communications)
  • 0:13:30 – Could an angel carry information faster than light? (James Pepe)
  • 0:23:59 – Do demons target latent psychics? (Malrin Ral)
  • 0:33:14 – Does Communion break the Ash Wednesday fast? (Matthew Walczak)
  • 0:35:50 – Would an alternate timeline’s pope have jurisdiction here? (Jedi Knyghte)
  • 0:42:49 – Do stage magicians have preternatural gifts? (Titus Constantine)
  • 0:51:28 – Thank you to Patrons
  • 0:51:56 – Sponsor: Miss D’s Honeybees
  • 0:52:39 – Sponsor: Fr. Dwight Longenecker
  • 0:53:20 – Catholic Answers Live: hour two
  • 0:53:52 – Jimmy Akin Podcast plug on Catholic Answers Live
  • 0:55:37 – Did Atlantis and Lemuria seed ancient civilizations? (Marcus TX6SO)
  • 1:08:35 – Are some people evil by descent from Cain or the giants? (YouTube Binge Q1P)
  • 1:17:59 – Why bread and wine instead of lamb? (Ismael Salazar)
  • 1:22:06 – Could time-travel prayer empty hell? (Reginald O’Donoghue)
  • 1:27:52 – Do priests use remote viewing in confession? (Kyle McDonough)
  • 1:35:17 – How many bison have been sucked into tornadoes? (Jacob Ecklund)
  • 1:36:38 – Is the Angel of the Lord Jesus? (OMY 323)
  • 1:39:58 – Would human extinction trigger the resurrection? (Larry Ryba)
  • 1:41:27 – Mysterious Feedback: #429 Shared Death Experiences
  • 1:55:23 – Your mysterious feedback
  • 1:55:58 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
  • 1:56:02 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
  • 1:56:40 – Next Time: More Weird Questions
  • 1:57:00 – Mysterious World Bookstore
  • 1:57:09 – Get your Mysterious merch
  • 1:57:18 – Show notes
  • 1:57:25 – Become a Patron
  • 1:57:33 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
  • 1:57:52 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
  • 1:58:16 – Outro

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Father Dwight Longenecker. Are you inspired by sharp, witty writing about faith and culture? Does imaginative, thought provoking content help you see the world, the church and yourself with fresh vision? Popular convert, Catholic priest and author Father Dwight Longenecker writes daily at his Substack and at his award winning website, Standing on My Head, where you can read answers, apologetics and explorations of the mysteries of this world and the next. Read his blog, get his new book, Bloodshed and Blessing, and be in touch at dwightlongenecker.com.

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