Rise of atheism: 100,000 Brits seek 'de-baptism'

[Final-Fan]

ManusJustus said:

Final-Fan said:

As opposed to this world coming to an end to be replaced by nothing?  Wow, I can see what a difference my charitable contribution really made in the long run!  

And doesn't it bother you that you're relying on the assumption that the Earthly deeds have no effect on who gets into what afterlife?  

Also, even if the old world is erased and replaced by the new, everyone who still remembers the old world is thus affected by what happened in it, i.e. earthly deeds.  (As in my first question.)  Or, let's say, the number of friends he starts out with in Heaven.   

Finally, does this mean that you concede that the existence of an afterlife doesn't per se mean that the preceding lifetime was meaningless, if there is not a "world reboot"?  

I make no difference between the world being replaced by (insert religious reference here) or the universe coming to an end.  In scientific terms, our universe would end in a Big Freeze as cosmic accelerates continues its course, Big Crunch as the universe collapses on itself, or through the natural decay of atomic particles.  Thats if mankind or other forms of life are not able to have an affect on the end of the universe or prevent themselves from being a casualty of it, and noone can currently make an educated guess about this.

If your Earthly deeds get you into the afterlife, they would matter in the sense as that they are the reason you are there.  However, these memories (as well as other ones) would be nothing more than a fading memory that would be forgotten with time. 

My point is that if it is forgotten or doesn't have an effect on the outcome of the universe, then it doesnt matter.  I cant remember what I did when I was 3 months old, so do these forgotten events matter?  About all I know of these childhood events is that I didnt manage to kill my self since I am still here.  However, lets say I'm in Heaven (fat chance) in a trillion years, will I remember if I came to Heaven as a child that choked to death on a hot dog or as a old man who died of old age?

Some questions I would like for you to answer:

If you are in Heaven, would you remember what you did on Earth a trillion years in the future?  If before the Big Bang there was a universe that use to exist be but was destroyed along with all traces of everything that occured in that universe, would events that took place in that universe matter?

Perhaps I was misunderstanding you.  I had thought that you were saying that there were deeds or whatnot that were meaningful if there was not Heaven, but not meaningful if there was Heaven.  I mentioned this point several times and that I disagreed with it.  

So when you say that, if you consider the two cases of everything being dead in the universe with no afterlife, or people in Heaven who have totally forgotten mortal existence, in both cases the events in that dead/forgotten past are equally meaningless, I AGREE!  But I perceived that to be the opposite of your earlier claim. 

[edit:  Belatedly, I'd like to add the caveat that the Earthly events are only "meaningless" in Heaven in that they don't mean anything to anyone; they still "matter" in that they had an impact on who is in Heaven at all.

[Also:  no response?]