Purgatory is a clever and useful invention, don’t you think? The idea is that while we may not be perfect, blameless and un-sinful, we may still achieve eternal happiness. It’s simply a matter of waiting (albeit for a very long time) in a sort of gigantic movie set that looks exactly like Heaven, but for the fact that God’s not there.
God is in the Here and Now. Attempting to regulate human behavior, religions have promulgated the notion that after death some conscious element of each of us is transported to a place of eternal bliss (Heaven) — or damned to eternal torment. These kinds of illogical “articles of faith,” because they defy current, informed, adult reason, rather than help humans live better lives, drive them away from believing in God.
We attain salvation by living in conscious contact with God right here, right now. The blessed energy we emanate from a God-centered life is suffused over the world; in that do we achieve everlasting life.
Nick Hilton - Reflections 