Heaven, Hell, and the After Life

"We only know what we know or we see as we are"

I had an interesting conversation with several pastors yesterday about heaven, hell, and the after life.  One pastor said to me that it seemed like there was a lot of this stuff I did not seem to have tightly nailed down.  It seems like many Christians are not comfortable with mystery, paradox, and vulnerability.  But what are we really putting our confidence in?  All of our knowing comes from certain experiences and even lack of experience.  We strongly believe things because someone told us to believe them or we experiences it for our self.  We also disbelieve certain things because they are outside of our experience and unless that changes, we will probably remain skeptics for the time being.  And what are we to believe about heaven and hell?  Is there an intermediate state or place of waiting or purgatory until God judges all things in the end?  What about ghosts, near death experiences, and we could throw in a huge list of the paranormal?  It seems like people explain their beliefs in or against these things in whether they have experienced them or not.   We often agree on what we believe in but it usually is what we disbelieve in that people divide over.  I don't believe in angels or demons.  I don't believe in miraculous spiritual gifts for today.  I don't believe in speaking or tongues or prophecy.  I don't believe in ghosts or people dying and going to heaven and coming back.  I don't believe unless something happens within my own world of experience or somebody I thoroughly trust happens to them that I can not easily explain away or dismiss.  In the end, is our confidence in our ability to know things or is it in God knowing us?