I really am looking to understand God, but not this God that humans teach, but the real God of Love , Joy and Peace. Not this God of eternal hell punishing, but the God of Patience, forgiveness and Mercy. You know, the real God, not this insane lunatic that many are trying to pass God off as being. You know, this lunatic that will place humans in this eternal Pain amphlipier and punish them for billions upon trillions of untold time and on into infinity. I just can't imagine how out of control this hell fire belief has gotten. And how much these bloodthirsty christians who teach it have ruined Gods reputation.
The eternal punishing of anything, muchless a human, is a sick concept, yet many believers have swallowed it into their belief, hook, line and sinker. And THAT is evidence of just how much foolishness we will absorb.
Peace.
There are many different people and many different religions with many different interpretations of God.
All I can say is that the God that I believe in does not have concepts such as eternal damnation for sinners and unbelievers.
The God that I believe in seeks only bestow good, in fact it was this desire to bestow goodness that led to his creation of the Universe, and Humans. He created us so that he could bestow goodness unto us.
The way I always understood the afterlife, was that the physical part of a person dies, and the part that is left rises to "Heaven" which is not, as some would imagine, a place to fulfill the physical wants that you had in life. It is a place where you receive clarity and understanding of God, and derive pleasure simply by being with him. You do not need or want any worldly pleasures because the physical part of you is gone.
Your faith is irrelevant to getting into Heaven, in the Heaven that I believe in, you can have Jews and Muslims, and Christians, together with people who do not associate with those religions but believe in a concept of God and live life according to the standards that He laid out (mainly being a decent human being).
As far as Hell is concerned, it is the pain that you feel when you receive that clarity and the closeness to God and feel shame for the times when you did not do what was right. That time of intense shame that you feel is Hell, and over time it will pass to allow you to fully enjoy the presence of God.