I think god, whatever you percieve God to be, can see into your heart. This means that if you are living your life in love, doing what you truly believe to be correct, and are reverent about others too, you're on the right track.

But if you have badness in your heart, or greed or cruelty, even if you act apparently in god's name, he will know your true motivation and that is a bad path to take.

I also believe a soul is tested before achieving heaven/enlightenment but i believe too in karma. There is no "good" karma - karma is the debt of sins accumulated by your soul as you move through life and you must repay before you can move on up. I think hardship settles karma and teaches us lessons about ourselves, the world, how to be, but if we are poor scholars, engage in self-pity or hate or perpetuate the pain we have suffered and gather more karma, we get another lesson, even harder, until we learn. I am not completely without compassion! But i do think i know many, many people who are so much more in control of their lives and hardships than they are willing to see - and i don't mean abstract "this happened because you were mean to her" scenarios, i mean literal "you made a poor decision and this is the fruit of that" scenarios. It is painful to stop in the middle of hardship and think "why is this really happening? could i have prevented it? if i couldn't have prevented it, what is it teaching me? did i need this lesson?" but the answer to the last question is invariably yes.

As for the major religions, there's an analogy....(wait for it!)..

There's an elephant. The elephant is God. The elephant is surrounded by the scholars of the major religions. They are blind, because none of us can know the true nature of God. The Jewish scholar has his hands on an ear. He calls out to the others "The nature of God is flat and smooth and large!". The Christian scholar holds the trunk. He calls out to the others, "The nature of God is long and flexible!". The Muslim scholars hold tusks, the Sunni calls out "The nature of God curves this way." the Shia responds "The nature of God curves THIS way!". The Buddhist sits at the feet of the elephant, leaning back against the leg and says "The nature of God is a steady support, a solid resting place.". The Hindu scholar holds onto the tail and laughs at the Buddhist's words which are such a poor description.

If humans, or elephants, can be so complex and hard to "know" with our narrow vision of relaities, how much more so must God be? To understand God would be like trying to drink the oceans. I will sip what i can hold in my teeny hands and be satisfied.

Bx