In my faith we must accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Know that He died, shed His precious blood for our sins to be forgiven, and was raised from the grave in three days. After a short sojourn he ascended into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of God.

Being baptized, going to church, singing in the chior, being on the Deacon Board, none of these will get you into Heaven. Accepting Christ as your personal Savior, repenting of past sins, and trying daily to follow the teachings of Jesus will give you a free ticket.

Renee

Read the bible, Quran(sp) or whatever takes your fancy.

If you don't have a religion, then you don't believe in a heaven (like me... *speaks from her own perspective*) but that doesn't stop you having a desire or a legit reason to be a good person. Don't kill, don't steal, all that stuff and just BE NICE TO PEOPLE! If going into a paradise after life thing isn't a good enough reason for one person to be a good person, then what about the satisfation that you've done nothing but good in your life and helped people, not hindered them... really, you shouldn't need anything other reason liek this paradise bribe, and if you do then in my opinion you're already a bad person to an extent.

(/rant)

I don't think it's as hard as everyone thinks it is. I used to think it was hard too. But the older I get the easier and more simple it seems.

Now of course - I don't reaaaally know the answer either. But my take on this..

1) Acceptance is the FIRST STEP (accept faith, accept your neighbor - despite differences, accept who you are, accept hardships in life as if they are a test so on..)

2) Be a good person (no killing, no malice, no illwill - smile, be polite, respectful etc..)

3) Faith - without faith - there is no paradise

4) Trust whoever it is you believe in. If you don't trust them - how can they help you.

Wether you belive that heaven exists or not there is no proof of that. I belive that it doesn't. In fact I'm not sure that there is god. There is no proof of that either. I belive that every religion was "invented" long time ago before there were any laws by a very smart person for one simple purpose: keep the mankind orderly, make it possible for us to live in a society, stop us from hating and killing each other. then it developed and adapted to mankind's current issues over time: for example circumcision in jewish faith has a simple purpose: to stop HIV from spreading. It's a fact that circumcision decreases chances of becoming infected with HIV. I bet that if you reread the bible thinking that the religion's purpose is to keep us safe from one another, you will see support of this idea all over it.