I believe in life after death. As a Christian, my faith assures me that when my body dies my soul will live on in heaven. Exactly, what that means isn't important. What's important is that we understand why we have been given this promise.
It isn't a reward for good behavior or for killing the infidels. God doesn't sit up in heaven with a big book making check marks next to our names. He has no naughty or nice list. To him we are all nice. Our behavior may not be nice but we were made in his image. We were given free will. What we do with the life he gave us, is up to us.
All God asks is that we accept his love and believe in the promise that Christ's death made certain. God asks two things of us. The first is to return his love and love him. The second is that we love each other. There is no long list of rules that we have to abide by in order to graduate to heaven when we die.
God accepts us as we are in all of our imperfections. He knows when we succeed and he knows when we fail. Either way, he loves us. He has promised through his son's words that he will always love us. We are his children. A parent always loves its child no matter what. God will never turn away from us. Even when we turn away from him.
I have three children. I have always told them that I love them and there is nothing they could ever do that would change that. That promise was tested several times. Each time I assured my child that I loved them and would do anything I could to help them. If I can make a promise like that and keep it, I could never question whether God could do the same.
I went to Catholic schools back when nuns wore garments that covered everything but their faces and their hands. The particular order that taught (and I use the word loosely) at my school were known to be the worst. The worst teachers and the worst people. They were mean. They literally put the fear of the lord into you. We went to confession every Friday. My list was always the same; I disobeyed my parents 3 times; I had impure thoughts twice (I didn't even know what that meant); I called my brother names. One Friday I decided to shake things up a bit. I confessed to committing adultery 3 times. I definitely didn't know what that meant. And the priest must have been very surprised. My guess is he had a chat with the nun who taught my class.
As an adult, I decided to use that free will and learn for myself what God was all about. What a change from what had been hammered into my head as a child. I read the Bible and learned that God loved me. I learned that he wasn't always poised to make a black mark next to my name. I learned that he had sent his son to pay the price for my sins.
I have many health issues. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, and most recently, breast cancer. I could easily have asked God why me. But, instead I said why not me. My faith doesn't mean my life will be easy. It means that I will always have a loving father present with me. One who knows how much I hurt and cries when I do. I don't go through life alone. God is there to celebrate with me and to comfort me. He asks very little in return.
So the basic difference between my view and others who have written on this title is that I believe in God. I go to a particular church but religion is different from faith. Going to church every Sunday or singing in the choir is a way of strengthening my faith. I don't believe any religion has a direct line to heaven.
Someone mentioned 9/11. That is a perfect illustration of how faith gets us through the horrors of this life. God didn't cause the attacks and the terrorists didn't get the rewards they were expecting. They have corrupted the faith of Islam. When something happens and we ask why God would allow this to happen, the simple answer is we have free will. Men carried out the attacks on our country. God allowed it when he gave us free will. He doesn't send plagues to punish us. AIDS isn't a punishment for homosexuality.
It's people preaching such nonsense that makes belief in a loving God difficult. How do you live through hard times or even good times if you don't believe in God? I'd hate to think that my existence is due to some cosmic explosion and that when I die that's the end. I believe that the Bible was written by people who were inspired by God. I don't know if they are infallible but I know that God is and if the Bible was inspired by God then it follows that it is what He wants us to know.
It doesn't have all the answers and sometimes it seems to contradict itself. Again it was written by many different people who's experience was different. Biblical scholars have differing opinions and that's okay. In addition to free will, God gave us intelligence and expects us to use it.
My son has studied the Bible and it's history and early Christianity in addition to theology, Greek, Latin, and other religions. He could write a much better explanation than I can. All I have is my faith in God and in His love and mercy. It's the only way I can get through life. I try to be the best person I can be but I fall short. God understands that. He created me. He knows I'm trying. And like any loving parent, that's all He asks.