Simon » And yet some would have us believe that "God" expects us to find the right one and will kill anyone who doesn't.
Yes, but many would hold that that would make God unjust. Why would God "kill" anyone who doesn't find His true religion? If God is bound by by a law of justice, He would have to judge people by what was in their hearts. Very few Christians believe that people "sleep" when they die. Origen, who literally had one foot in the first century church and the other in the later church, when trying to recall the early teachings of the church, wrote: "After death, I think the saints go to Paradise, a place of learning or school of the spirits, in which everything they learned on Earth would be made clear to them." This is actually consistent with countless near death experiences, and of the many I've read, not ONE of the people who had them did anyone ever mention being asked which church they belonged to. But they did undergo "life reviews," in which they learned a great deal about the lives they lived.
I think even atheists receive a fair shake if their beliefs are sincerely held. It would be a narrow, vindictive God who would expect a person to be a member of a particular church, or else.