Re: Going to heaven when we die.

Well certainly I don't see any of this as a contest of who can be the best debater of the bible. In all honesty, I don't care to admit that I don't have a great memory either and my brain is very damaged from decades of illness. I can't keep up intellectually with some of the groups I am on now, so that is why I mostly just sit back and observe. 
 
So please don't take anything I say as trying to be intellectually superior or anything like that. I am just presenting what I've come to believe.  I also don't claim that all of the bible is easy to understand. I certainly don't think it is. There are parts that I just flat out don't understand myself sometimes but I know it's only through God's grace that we understand even the simplest things so when I don't understand something I come across, I just pray and ask for understanding and wait on Him to show me. So I can fully admit with you, the bible has made me feel very overwhelmed at times.   
But I do agree with Rainy, that although there are parts of the bible that seem contradictory, the problem lies with our lack of understanding and not that the bible is actually contradictory. It just appears that way to us. 
 
I agree with you on Harry Potter and all of the rest like it.  

As for this passage:
"For me to live in Christ and to die is gain...if I am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor to me. Yet which shall I choose I can not tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."

I don't see this as a contradiction to what I believe because as I said in my last message, I believe the next moment we are aware of after we die, is being resurrected to life to be with Christ. I heard someone say recently that the way they see it, time here is a created thing by God, but He lives outside of time. Time just has to do with this earth. So while in an earthly sense, if I die before you, time will pass before I am consciously alive again (until the resurrection) in another sense (since God is outside of time) I am immediately with Him as soon as I die, and that is exactly what I believe I will experience. And so I can say with Paul, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."  

I hope that makes sense! :)