Heaven and Purgatory certainly do exist. However, the idea of hell and the devil is childish and mythological. If God loves everyone, which I believe He does, then why would He punish people for all eternity? I believe in punishment on earth, everything balances out. If you do wrong then wrong is done to you; and if you do good then goodness comes to you. Purgatory is a place between Heaven and Earth where we go to make up for the sins that we were not punished for on Earth. Telling your sins to a priest and saying a few prayers after (confession and penance) can not possibly rid you of any kind of punishment. The devil is a fictitious character, invented to scare people into doing the right thing. No angel would ever compete with God, because in order to become an angel you have to accept God as all high. When people say that the devil influences us and makes us do wrong things, I believe they are looking for an excuse. How can you say that the devil has any control over our lives? If he did then he would be God, right?