Do you believe in (any) God?
Absolutely yes. Wouldn't have the strength to make it through even one day of my life if I allowed myself doubts about that. In a world whose existence is unproven and unprovable, God-As-I-Understand-It is my anchorpoint of faith.
Do you practice a religion?
No. Brought up Catholic, resigned from practising it during puberty (when stumbling upon Buddhism and Hinduism, and noticing the glaring hypocrisy of the way my family approached Christianity), and finally left the church officially in 2003. I'd nowadays refer to myself as a nonconfessional, pantheist mystic.
Do you believe in Heaven?
Yes. The way I imagine it is quite different from "traditional" heaven, however. I see Heaven as leaving the limitations of subjective, personal existence and having the soul (once again) become one with God - timeless, impersonal, omniscient and objective.
That doesn't rule out reincarnation, but I consider it quite possible that the "God-Energy" making up the person who's typing this post atm might be "recycled" into half a lion, five rocks, 237 daisies and 18% free-floating energy, just as easily as into another Homo Sapiens.
Hell?
Not exactly, especially not as the eternal place of damnation where God chucks off the unfaithful... The "hellish" aspects of my cosmology are more in line with Martinus' Purgatory - the "ghostly" mind of a dead person "stuck" in subjective, personal hallucinations (with their neuroses shaping their more or less nightmarish "personal hell"). Sort of like Angelus' experience in "Orpheus", actually.
I strongly believe that, if you find yourself in this "Hell", you can leave it at any time if you reject it as not reality, but a product of your troubled psyche; I see that as pretty much like realizing you're dreaming in a lucid dream (one of the reasons lucidity, and training to achieve it, fascinates me).
Are you anti or pro abortion?
Strongly Pro-choice. IMO there are much, much worse things that can happen to a kid after it's born than being killed of in the womb - in fact, I've been through some of those, and I've more than occasionally wondered whether abortion wouldn't have been the smarter thing to do in my mum & dad's case, for everyone involved. If a pregnant woman, for whatever reason, comes to the conclusion that it's better for her kid not being born, I'm not gonna argue with her.
Death Penalty?
Very much against it. The only one who should have the right to end a human life post-birth is that person him- or herself, and even if said person killed another one, "two wrongs don't make a right".
Right to Die?
100% in favor, if you take care to ensure the decision is made by the "assisted suicidals" themselves, not manipulated by others with vested interests.
Animals Rights?
While I'd love to give a clear yes (as I, too, find animals to be nicer creatures than many of the humans I know, including myself), I realize that this answer would be hypocritical as I enjoy to eat meat and know that it can't be produced at the price I can afford to pay while treating the animals with respect. That we kill them for food doesn't concern me much (that's just nature's way), that we make them suffer through horribly inhumane treatment before we kill them DOES concern me (live long-distance cattle transports, mass-cage egg-farms etc.). And harming/killing an animal for anything else than food or basic clothing (e.g., leather for a pair of shoes, especially since "the rest" of the cow or pig killed for these shoes can be eaten - but not fur coats) is just plain wrong.
Which system in our United States do you think needs the MOST overhaul?
I'll pass on that, as I'm no US citizen.
