But, of course, *you* don't have any preconceived notions when reading Scripture, for the Holy Spirit guides you, doubtless. Even to the point of revealing to you demonstrably false notions on the state of the soul after death that nearly all PROTESTANTS would disagree with you about. Yet you say that it is Catholics who are making "a really big wager" with respect to interpretation of Scripture!
As for your second point, I will try to be charitable and simply ignore it as a non-sequitur.
some have really led to making each man his own super-pope -- completely infallible on everything. So many evangelicals I've known keep using the term "I will wipe the dust off my feet" ad-nauseum
I had preconceived notions when I the Bible. I was mature and humble enough to realize that what I believed was not true. I can sleep well with the fact that Protestants, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, etc. disagree with me. Jesus was crucified by consensus and 48+% of our country voted for John Kerry. What I care about is what the Bible actually says.
The vast majority of scripture says precisely that the "dead know not anything". A person cannot exist apart from a body. Elijah and Enoch are the only two people in scripture that did not suffer the first death. The rest of us will be resurrected and judged, and the wicked will suffer the second death. Jesus showed us the process by actually suffering the death for us, being resurrected in the same body (remember doubting Thomas), and physically ascending to heaven.
Believing that people don't actually die, but that their "spirits" leave them after death is pagan, misguided, and leads to retarded doctrines like thinking there are suicide bombers in heaven, each with 72 virgins, and they are rooting bin Laden on like the "dog pound" on the old Arsenio Hall show.