I'm an American Baptist and I definetly believe in Heaven and Hell. I've thought about this alot and I tend to believe through my own readings that when the Bible discusses Hell it means that your soul will "die" as in, you will be thrown into the fire suffer horrible pain , then your soul will die. There will be no afterlife for you. So in essense the sinners who claim there is no afterlife can essentially be right because there won't be for them.
Without getting preachy here, Jesus claims quite a few times in the Bible that he will give us eternal life. I take that as meaning opposed to enternal death (hell).
Pat, I don't agree with you about how to get into Heaven. I was taught that being a good person was only half the battle. You also have to dedicate your life to God's way. Being nice simply isin't enough.
There was no Purgatory in my church. I'm always interested to hear more about it becuase I hope it exists.