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Whatever happens after death should have no impact on how one's life is lived. Some religions attempt to bribe and/or scare people into living "properly" by using ideas of an afterlife of paradise, or one of unending torture. Those that do not believe in a god will tell you that there is nothing after death. Who is right and does it really matter?

People have been ignoring the scaring and bribing attempts for thousands of years. Even when they do believe, whatever is beyond this life does not really concern them. As for those that are truly afraid or lured by the prospect of an afterlife, is their love and devotion to their god really genuine, or is it the result of their fear or desires?

In the Judeo-Christian Scriptures the afterlife is very rarely discussed, and never described in detail. Religion often gives a false impression that Yahweh (that's God) is overly obsessed with our afterlife and either threatening us with unending torture or attempting to bribe us with paradise. Yet, Yahweh rarely speaks of either of these things. He is more concerned with our current life and whether or not we love him. How can we love him if we are busy being afraid of what he will do or lured by promises of paradise?

Even though the afterlife is discussed very little in Scripture, it is touched upon, yet there are more than two possible outcomes after death that are hinted at in Scripture. To understand the three possible outcomes you have to dig a little into the original languages of Scripture, Hebrew and Greek, as the current translations are often biased by the translators preconceived notions. For example, the Hebrew word sheol is translated as "the grave" when speaking of good people, but when speaking of bad people it is translated as "hell." Yahweh used the same word each time, but when the translators did their job, they used their own bias to produce contradictory ideas. To understand this concept, we must be willing to look at scripture with fresh eyes. We need to stop seeing things through the cataracts of traditional religious dogma, and begin to examine and embrace the actual words of scripture. They can lead us to some stunning and awe-inspiring truths.

There are many scripture verses that will point out the three different destinations, but to examine them all would take more than an article. The first example is Matthew 13:47-50:

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full,

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