Four questions for Christians

[Consilius]

I don't know there is an afterlife: I believe in one.

Why? What valid purpose is there in deceiving one's self that something exist when there is no proof of its existence?

As an actual theist, I would like to say that I am not "afraid" of anything.

That is a lie. As a theist, if you stopped believing in god, you would suddenly be afraid of going to hell. As you have already stated, you have no proof to back up your faith, yet you believe despite the lack of evidence in support of your delusion. Therefore, it stands to reason that you believe to spare yourself the fear of ending up in eternal damnation.

Theists constantly lie to themselves, claiming that fear is not a component when it obviously is. They ignore it, however, because it makes them uncomfortable. Anything in relation to reason and logic that shatters their proverbial bubbles will be ignored and illogically reasoned away to maintain the comfort that belief provides in a world that functions naturally without a god.

I will reiterate, what valid purpose is there in deceiving one's self into believing that something exist when there is no evidence in support of its existence?

I thought theists and atheists settled this. I thought we agreed that the moral lives of atheists were as deserving of heaven as those of theists. There was even a thread on "Why is belief in a higher power required?" that hinged on that agreement.
Judeo-Christian theism is based on the belief in an invisible, omnipresent, and omnipotent force of good in the universe, which is God. This good is 'revealed' through encounters with it; the experience of what is good about life. When this good is harder to find, people believe that it is still present.