The Golden Child: Riddle Me This Friends

After my wildly unpopular story about the shoe riots I've decided to make a more user-friendly post.  Maybe "user-friendly" isn't the word I'm looking for...I'm studying all sorts of advertising research and media placement right now in school and I've learned a lot about demographics.  I don't think many of my posts fit the older, smarter, and more mature demographic that read this site.  Which is fine, so here is a cool riddle.  Don't check the posts too soon in case someone knows it and answers right away.  It's my favorite riddle/brain teaser ever.

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You walk into a room, the door closes behind you and disappears.  There are two doors in front of you.  One door leads to heaven, one leads to hell, but they are unmarked.  There are also two men on each side of the room, one "truth teller" and one "liar."  The truth teller always tells the truth, no matter what.  The liar always tells a lie, no matter what.  However, you have no idea which one is which, they look identical.  You get ONE question to ask ONE of the men (in other words you can't ask them both at once) that will help you get to heaven.  You can't go open one door, see what it is, then close it.  Once you open a door, that is your final choice.  You can't get out any other way.  You can only ask one question to one of the men.  The placement of the men in the room is irrelevant (i.e. it's not like the liar is automatically in front of the door to hell.)  How do you get to heaven safely?

note: there is no cooky stupid answer like "you have a gun, and you shoot one of the guys dead and torture the other one till he tells you what's up."  or "you grow wings and fly away."  there is a real answer that you can all come to figure out, just think aloud.  one question to ask...good luck.

note 2: someone has already answered the riddle in the posts...so don't cheat, i'm watching you.

Comments

[captain coco nuts]

You ask one of the men the following question:

"If I were to ask that OTHER guy over there which door leads to Heaven, what would HE say?"

The truthful man and the liar will necessarily tell you the same door, from which you can deduce that said door leads to hell, so take the other one.

[The Golden Child]

fantastic, well done. if you didn't know that riddle before i am very impressed...wow.

[Fuzzball]

That made my brain hurt.

[captain nono cuts]

There is a well circulated variant of this problem/riddle called (something like) "the prisoner problem." I recalled this after I solved it, tho. AND OMG, DID YOU WATCH LOST??? WHAT A FUCKING RIP.

[sdit]

I have smoke coming outta my ears just reading the explanation!

[Chris]

The Riddle of the Sphinx is another good one. Or is that too easy and obvious?

[liz]

I asked this riddle at work one day years ago and one guy just couldn't get it that you could only ask one of them the question. He totally freaked. He was yelling and jumping up and down. It took him three days to be able to speak civilly to me again.

[boo]

I love that riddle... it's in the film... "Labyrinth"... which is the only way... i know how to figure it out!...

[boo]

My other fave thing... is the... petals round the rose game... where you have five dice... and you have to say how many...

[jojo]

that is sooo hard. now i have a headache!

[Lady Gaga]

Say you were wearing a blue shirt. You could go up to one man and ask "What color is my shirt?" if he says anything other than blue you go to the next guy and demand "Bring me to the door of heaven!" Because he is obviously the truth teller. If the person you asked about your shirt says it is blue than you demand him to take you to the door of heaven because he is obviously the truth teller.

This way you ask only one question!