Infinity issues

Like you, the logic of etermal afterlife seems a bit of a ropey concept.

There is no proof of life after death - I spent over 10 years studying this with the Society of Psychical Research and all the information I could find and all the tests we performed could find absolutely no conclusive proof.

30 years later and they are no further forward which makes me think that if there isn't even a glimmer or evidence then there is a pretty good chance it doesn't exist.

I think we are just biological machines where our sentience is an accidental byproduct of millions of years of evolution.

It is quite natural to worry about what comes next but I find a comfort in thinking that all the most unpleasant people in history are not hanging about somewhere no doubt tormenting people in the afterlife just as they did in life.

The afterlife would also get pretty crowded when you consider that at this point in time there have been around 100 billion people who have ever lived ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population ) so their telephone directory will be enormous.

If you struggle in crowds then how does 100 billion sound?

Then again since autism is caused by our brains and they obviously won't be there in the afterlife then will we still be autistic?

Meh, too much vagueness, no proof and the answers all seem unpaletable so I'm sticking to my belief of it being lights out at the end.

I am curious why proof or disproof is necessary on some matters in this world. 

I find it sad when people ruin the one life we definitely know we have in service to an eternal life we definitely cannot count on.

Abrahamic beliefs are modern Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Ba Hai and any others who trace thier beliefs back to the patriarch Abraham.

I know not every one believes the world is damned or that it's my way or the highway, it depends on sect, personal belief and so many other things.

Can I ask you which religion/s you refer to when you talk about an ‘Abrahamic belief set’ and an ‘Abrahamic religion’? Not everyone who has a religious faith believes that ‘it’s their way or no way’ and not everyone believes that the rest of the world is damned’.

I agree with you about some pratices, especially some of the more extreme aescetic practices like the Buddhist ones you describe, but I do get the idea of monasticism and feel drawn to it myself. Having spent quite a lot of time in silent meditation retreats, the idea of living that life fulltime has it's appeal, I never found it about concentrating on an after life but living more fully in this one, there so much that gets missed out on in the hurley burly of life, I feel that I/we only live on one level, whereas in a mostly silent meditation space there seem to be so many more levels of life and so much more to appreciate. You get to know other people so differently, so many of the cues that we unconciously jusge people by are absent, how they speak, their accent etc, it's like you get to know the real them before you've made a load of judgements about them. I found much more love and understanding with people I'd never have normally connected with, some people find that very frightening and it does hold a mirror up to yourself, you see yourself reflected in the judgements you don't know you're making, it's uncomfortable at first, but then so liberating. The world just seems to get bigger and more wonderful in it's complexities.

To be honest I was thinking of more extreme cases - s’cide bombers, monks and nuns, that kind of thing.

I recently watched a documentary about a banned practice that some Buddhist monks undertake to achieve enlightenment and break the cycle of reincarnation - they survive on scavenged nuts and tree roots for a thousand days, then they spend a hundred days drinking a poisonous substance that makes them vomit constantly then they rate buried alive in a coffin with a bell that they ring every day. When the bell stops ringing, the other monks dig them up and if their body has mummified they are considering to have been enlightened. If their body is decomposing, it was all for nothing.

Seems a lot of bother to me!

To be honest I was thinking of more extreme cases - s’cide bombers, monks and nuns, that kind of thing.

I recently watched a documentary about a banned practice that some Buddhist monks undertake to achieve enlightenment and break the cycle of reincarnation - they survive on scavenged nuts and tree roots for a thousand days, then they spend a hundred days drinking a poisonous substance that makes them vomit constantly then they rate buried alive in a coffin with a bell that they ring every day. When the bell stops ringing, the other monks dig them up and if their body has mummified they are considering to have been enlightened. If their body is decomposing, it was all for nothing.

Seems a lot of bother to me!

I agree with you about some pratices, especially some of the more extreme aescetic practices like the Buddhist ones you describe, but I do get the idea of monasticism and feel drawn to it myself. Having spent quite a lot of time in silent meditation retreats, the idea of living that life fulltime has it's appeal, I never found it about concentrating on an after life but living more fully in this one, there so much that gets missed out on in the hurley burly of life, I feel that I/we only live on one level, whereas in a mostly silent meditation space there seem to be so many more levels of life and so much more to appreciate. You get to know other people so differently, so many of the cues that we unconciously jusge people by are absent, how they speak, their accent etc, it's like you get to know the real them before you've made a load of judgements about them. I found much more love and understanding with people I'd never have normally connected with, some people find that very frightening and it does hold a mirror up to yourself, you see yourself reflected in the judgements you don't know you're making, it's uncomfortable at first, but then so liberating. The world just seems to get bigger and more wonderful in it's complexities.