Isn't the first step is to actually convince yourself that there's a heaven? I just thought heaven was a selling point the Church made towards all of the peasants during Dark Ages, you know when life completely sucked. If you believe, you get to go to heaven despite all of your current sufferings on Earth.

LOL. Yeah it was from south park. But pretty good reply from someone that didn't know the show reference...

I believe Heaven is a place people made up to explain death in a nicer way than "you turn to dust and that's it." It has survived while most parts of the magical worldview have been replaced by science because it really appeals to people during times of distress, and science has yet to fully explain what really happens. A number of religions have attempted to make people more likely to behave by adding conditions of entry that can usually be summed up as "obey the people in charge of the religion", and it looks like they invented a real winning formula by doing so.

I also you're free to belive in this stuff if you want to. Even if I'm right and you're wasting your time, belief in the afterlife is rarely harmful.

 Would those rare instances be suicide bombing and getting 72 virgins or taking part in the Crusades nets you a place in heaven?

There is no heaven

I'm attributing those regrettable cases to the belief of there being a god who wants some people to blow themselves up in the middle of other people, rather than the belief of there being an afterlife. I suppose you could look at it the other way too, though.

If all we do is die and that is it, then why were we born with a conscience? Why is there something in us that gives us the ability to determine right from wrong? How does something like that just appear? Don't bother with saying it was just taught to us, because if that is the case, then who taught those who taught us, and so on. The ability to know right and wrong sets us apart from all other creatures, so why do we have it?

 Except for the fact that right and wrong differs from group to group and is determined by the majority of that group. But if you're asking questions, I might as wel, too. The human race, homo sapiens is how old? I don't know, maybe about of couple of ten of thousands of year and that's not including the other homo species that came an went before us. The earth is 4.5 billion years old. How come it took so damn long for us to emerge?

@kazadoom ah the mystery of life.

If we knew the answer to that question we wouldn't need religion.

But anyway, i think just being a good person gets you into heaven, not believing in a certain someone, not going to church or praying or any of tha. Just be a good hearted person.