for me, what made me beleive in God was not the fear of an afterlife... not at all... God is not the consequence of my fear... for I discovered that God stood as an existence by "itself"".. (please check my previous post)

What drives me to love God is not the fear of an afterlife, if our God holds a stick and a carrot then he is no better than any selfish human being...and I agree with you on that

but

afterlife is neither a reward or a punishement for a real christian, it is the natural continuity of life for our souls. (for that you have to beleive first that you have a soul.. but that's not too hard for any logical person that realizes that what is differing us from monkeys is not the very slight DNA difference, neither the neurones... and when you realize that spirits and demons do exsit... research this and let's discuss)

When you bond with God in this life, beleive me, you are too "out of your ego" to even worry about your own continuity... you live for love, and amazingly, our religion tells us exaclty that, for afterlife comes as a gift for granted, something you don't have to worry about or work for because you already got it by faith, for free...