[usmhot]

Regardless of what the various 'religious officials' say about their 'good book' being written by the hand of God, the fact is all of them were written by some man/men's hands. Even if God was speaking directly to the minds of the writers, those minds are limited by our corporeal existence and so not capable of truly understanding and interpreting the 'word of God'. So, I wouldn't hold too much store by the literal meaning of what has been written. Rather look for the core and central themes, which are common across the various religions.
I think you'll find that most reasonable and intelligent people aren't fooled by the details in the various 'good books'. (After all, don't they say 'the devil is in the details'.)
In general, people would feel (especially if they have children) that God is perfect in his love for us his children. And, no more so than a truly loving parent could condemn a wayward child to an eternity of suffering, no matter what that child did, could God condemn us, his children, to an eternity of suffering.
In most of our varying views of what heaven is, the common theme is one of eternal happiness and fulfillment. Humans interpret that in their own way, and many see it as just a nicer extension of what we currently experience (think life in the burbs with a swimming pool, a 42" plasma TV and every sattelite channel in the world) but undoubtedly, if heaven exists then it would be very different to this. True joy and fulfillment will appeal to our souls and provide us with a completion and enlightenment - as many religions would put it, our souls will know pure love.
So, heaven is not really meant to be seen as a place, but rather a state of being.
And, in that context, hell is not a place either. Most people would feel that hell does not exist, except when they consider some of the horrendously evil characters that have imposed themselves on us. However, some believe that 'hell' is being exposed in full to the suffering that we have visited on others. And, by that, I don't mean being hurt or tortured in the same way, but, rather, feeling the fear and pain in exactly the same way as it was felt by our victims. Pretty horrific for some of us.