Afterlife

[CCoburn]

Why does it matter?

I think people just don't want to die and seek comfort in the idea of an 'afterlife'.

There's probably been around 100 billion people who have lived and died, I don't see any of them floating around or doing anything remotely useful.

They do raise a valid point, and it should be fairly evident that whatever form an afterlife does take it's not something that allows for easy access to your prior existence, and recalling a past life would seem more difficult than trying to conjure memories of when you were only a couple years old; not to mention that your entire physiology has changed. I'm not exactly clear on the effects of separating spirit/soul and body, or pneuma and soma as some might call it.

It seems it would at least require an understanding of how 'time' functions, for starters, and also of 'identity' i.e. is my true nature (my identity that I perceive) exactly what it appears to be, or is my physical vessel also playing a vital role here?

I would prefer to look at it in more general terms such as: the fact that 'I' am here now is proof that 'I' have always been here, but then again, how exactly is the "I" defined, and can it be defined in exactly the same way in the absence of the physical?

Some of this would be derived of the fact that eternity is all about repetition.