What exactly is faith?

What exactly is faith in the eyes of the oblivious? Well, I believe faith comes in many different forms. From differing religions, to different ideals. In the end, they all lead up to one conclusion: That all souls who have served with great piety will reach eternal salvation. The Buddhists believe that all souls who have reached a certain succession of positive endearment, will mutually have good karma returned to them. In the end, their soul will be enlightened. (If I'm wrong, please correct me.)
Christians of all forms believe that their souls will reach Heaven if they follow the word of God. That Jesus, the son of God, will open the gates of Heaven and welcome all of those who have done good deeds in their duration of their lifetime here on Earth.
The mass of religion and their complexity is all an entanglement of deeper meaning, yet from those two examples, we can subject ourselves to believing that all faiths just basically say that our souls will go somewhere much better, without the suffering and heartache that Earth happens to provide to us.

I believe that faith really is a getaway from all the woes and heartaches that this world provides for us. Our world in this time, can be metaphorically be called a "labyrinth" (I take this with great inspiration from John Green's 'Looking for Alaska. Great book, by the way.) where all eternal suffering and transgressions can be escaped through faith, to those who believe. Those who seek for a way out, or just to ease the fear of the afterlife, we use faith as our guidance.
In the end, we actually don't have a clue what exactly would happen once we cross over to the next stage in our lives. How can we? No matter the spiritual or scientific evidence we have, we'd only have to wait. Otherwise, to those who keep faith in whatever you believe in for what is next to come in the afterlife, keep believing. Even if it's not a religion, it's human nature to just believe in something. It drives the human soul to go onward, in hopes of reaching enlightenment and fulfillment in something, during our time here in this so-called "labyrinth".