This is a question that's been going through my mind a lot in the years since I became an agnostic atheist.  So many people, even if they don't attend church/synagogue/mosque/whatever claim to be a member of a religion, in the U.S., mostly of the Christian religion.  Even the ones that do make me wonder...do these people REALLY believe in God?  I look at the actions of so many, the selfishness, greed, hatred, just the generally crappy way that people treat others and the things they do, especially when they think no one's looking and I think to myself, "If I REALLY believed in God, especially the Abrahamic God/Jesus, there's NO WAY I'd risk going to hell and do those things!"  Of course there's the belief in "forgiveness" to consider.  Do they really believe and use the "forgiveness clause", as I call it, as a sort of "get out of jail free" card, or do they really deep down not believe or at least have major doubts and just say they are a certain religion so that they fit in, or because of family tradition or something along those lines?  It just boggles my mind that if people really, truly believed in God that they would act the way they do and risk eternal punishment.  Even if they believe in the forgiveness clause, wouldn't they consider the possibility that they could die suddenly like in a car accident or of a heart attack and not be able to ask for that forgiveness before death?