It depends on which school. Mahayana is big on heaven/hell. Theravada not so. Vajrayana, I dunno enuf abt it to say.

Theravada believes in samsara.... and the only afterlife is probably nirvana

all buddhist school understands samsara and for the love of god....nirvana is not an afterlife. 

i beg to differ.... AFAIK buddhist schools does not believe in god though... at least not the one that i went to when I was younger which is the Buddhist Maha Vihara Brickfields. I was told that Buddha himself is not a god and never asked anyone to worship him and he was just a teacher spreading knowledge. I think its about time to go back there and speak to one of teachers in a Sunday school or something now lolz... i may have been told half truths...

but entering nirvana has similarities with afterlife where there is no more rebirth / reincarnation but the mind continues after physical death... hence i said nirvana is probably an afterlife in theravada buddhism but maybe i have not typed it out right...

Correct, Buddhists don't, or rather, are not supposed to worship gods. The Buddha himself was merely a reluctant teacher who din even wanna teach at first. He made it abundantly clear to everyone that he should'nt be treated as god. Originally, bowing to the Buddha was a form of paying respect in his culture. Its not worshipping. However many people today including lay Buddhists turned it into god worship, asking for forgiveness etc, against the wishes of the Buddha. The Buddha is dead and gone. He cannot forgive anyone or save them from their problems. He is not a god.

From the Buddhist text, nirvana is neither existence nor non existence. Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism does not believe in a soul. After you attain nirvana, with no soul and with neither existence nor non existence, there is no more "you." It can't be described as an afterlife. But if you have not attained nirvana yet, your consciousness will transfer to another body. That is a kind of afterlife.

Sorry if this strayed from the original topic. 

I do believe that humans need religion. Let's take moral values for example:

You could say that morality can be constructed solely from rational arguments or empathy a.k.a. the Golden Rule.

But I believe the problem for this is that arguments and empathy can be subjective.

Let's say self-beatings. This practice can be considered as an act of bravery, or self-redemption, according to some cultures. However, other cultures may view this practice simply as harming one's own body, inviting diseases to wounds, etc. Differing values.

Same as empathy, in which we would treat others as we would like to be treated. However, can a South African 20 year old know what a 70 year old Russian feels? Can a minister of a country empathize with the common man selling t-shirts at the night market?

Only religion provides the reason to break through all these subjectivities, by an objectivity, which is God, the creator of everything, which stands above everything.

Without religion, moral values would be as stable as fashion sense. Ever evolving, ever changing.

UPDATE :

We're already came this far. So now, I have 1 question for you to answer, directly. No straying. Please answer according to your own belief, I know we have Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, whatever beliefs here. I don't want to be general, just state what you believe so that we can SHARE the knowledge of different perspectives here. NO DEBATES please. And, please answer in 123s.

Example :

I need religion because :
1.
2.
3.
4.


Question:

So you need religion. Why do you need religion? What aspect of YOUR religion do you need in your life, and what aspect that you don't need, and why? Please answer according to your own religion and beliefs, do NOT BE GENERAL.

or

So you do not need religion. What about religion that is so against your logic? Do you need the spirituality? If you do, why only the spirituality? And what change will spirituality do to your life? What do you think about people who are religious?

or

So you do not need religion, and God does not exist. Why do you have that logic? Why spirituality does not matter? What do you think about life after death, being an atheist? What do you think about people who are religious?

i beg to differ.... AFAIK buddhist schools does not believe in god though... at least not the one that i went to when I was younger which is the Buddhist Maha Vihara Brickfields. I was told that Buddha himself is not a god and never asked anyone to worship him and he was just a teacher spreading knowledge. I think its about time to go back there and speak to one of teachers in a Sunday school or something now lolz... i may have been told half truths...

but entering nirvana has similarities with afterlife where there is no more rebirth / reincarnation but the mind continues after physical death... hence i said nirvana is probably an afterlife in theravada buddhism but maybe i have not typed it out right...

After death, there's nothing.

but the moral value of every religions are different, even the different branch within that religion will have different moral value. how can that be stable?

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Added on August 17, 2010, 11:48 pmand u know because?

but the moral value of every religions are different, even the different branch within that religion will have different moral value. how can that be stable?

True, true. That is the reality of things. But if you consider an isolated environment, where a community only has to abide to one religion, everyone would conform to only one set of standards. Hence, you have stability. Arguments will be diffused by a higher principle, which is God.

Looking at the larger picture, there CAN be stability, not through total conformity but tolerance. I think major religions have already covered this aspect. By doctrines, at least. People's personal choices however, is an entirely different story.

and u know because?