Genesis 1:1

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

This seems very straight forward.  In the beginning God was.  And not only did he exist, but he created the heavens and the earth.  So this is my first question, is the word "heavens" referring to the place we believe we'll go after death, or is it referring to the sky and everything beyond?  (the stars, galaxies, other planets, etc.) 

According to wikipedia the phrase "the heavens and the earth" simply is a figure of speech that means everything.  This sounds logical, but I have also heard that wikipedia is not a reliable source.  Unfortunately I'm not a Greek or Hebrew scholar that can read either of those languages, so of course I use google to see what else I can find.  QBible.com has a transliteration that has "heavens" meaning the skies and beyond.  The Bible Lexicon's definition of "heavens" also agrees with that meaning.

Of course in looking up the definition of "heavens" I've found that there is also some disagreement on whether this verse should actually be translated to "In the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth."  I don't really see how that matters.  Either way the verse is acknowledging that it was in the beginning that God created everything.  The "when" just changes it to the beginning of a sentence or a paragraph, which makes sense with the rest of the chapter going into more details about that creation.  To me that reads more like "When God created everything this is how it went."

This is a simple verse, but vitally important.  It is acknowledging that before anything and everything God existed and he made everything.