These ideas seem much more theological than they do philosophical. But since it's been brought up, I think it's important to remember that many of the Judeo-Christian assumptions we make about God did not originate in the Judeo-Christian scriptures and are rarely taught by many denominations.

The simplistic yet popular ideas that heaven is a reward and hell is a punishment owe much more to writings such as Dante's "Inferno" and Milton's "Paradise Lost" than they do the Bible. Those ideas go hand in hand with the flat earth and the concept of God as an old, bipolar man who allows a guy with horns and a red pitch-fork to torture the innocent.

In order to maintain political control, many of these ideas were codified in the catechisms of several older Christian denominations. But the majority of Protestant Christians rely on a Bible-reading tradition rather than a catechism. In other words, this idea of God punishing people by sending them to hell is much more prevalent in the imaginations of agnostics than it is in the spiritual teachings of Christians, the majority of whom rejected that idea over two years ago. These concepts of God continue to live on in the popular imaginations of Americans because the Puritans kept them alive here even when they were being rejected by the rest of the world.

The Bible is, of course, open to interpretation. But very little of it has to do with the hereafter and heaven or hell. The Bible is much more focused on how to treat people in this life and live a love-filled life.

Also, since we're throwing in our personal two-cents about heaven and hell, here's my personal belief:

The idea of a "good person" is just as judgmental as the idea of a "bad person" because the term "good" has no meaning without the term "bad." For one to say he or she can be a "good person" based on his or her actions is to say that there are those who can be judged "bad people" based on their actions. I'm not prepared to be that judgmental and make distinctions between good people and bad people. And I don't think God is either.

Like the philosophical idea of care ethics, I reject principles, rules, and judgements in favor of relationships. One's relationship with God is what determines one's final destiny. Heaven is not a reward and hell is not a punishment. Heaven and hell are terms that describe our relationship with God. Heaven is being fully in the presence of God and hell is being fully separated from him. Right now we're inbetween. It's not our good deeds or bad deeds that bring us closer or separates us, it's our tendency to act selfishly. Whether we act on it once every ten years or ten times a day, the mere existence of our selfish nature prevents us from getting closer to God.

I don't think we're capable of giving up our selfish nature on our own so I, as a Christian, rely on the ultimate act of selflessness—Christ's sacrifice—to bring me into a closer relationship with God.

I'm not counting on how I live to get me to heaven but on how Jesus died. I don't try to be a good person in order to get to heaven. How selfish would that be? If you're being good just to get a reward, are you really being good? I don't think so. I don't try to be a good person at all. I try to show people that I love them for no other reason than I have yet to meet a person that I didn't love on some level.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm preaching because I'm really not. The reason I spent as much time explaining my point of view as I did is because the majority of Christian viewpoints on this issue aren't as simple as some people try to make them.