A Christian told me that there had to be an afterlife because this world is so horrible sounds rather depressing to me.
No. Knowing that the end is coming, I have more incentive to enjoy every day to the fullest. Cheers!
The concept of eternal life terrorized me even as a six year old child.
I am elated because there is conscious awareness in the moment. Time is an illusion.
I have been dead twice, and I can assure you it is just lovely...quiet, no pain, no memories, just peace and "fading" (do not know how, really, to describe it)
I felt it as a huge loss. After all, it's the loss of everlasting life. I'm comforted a little by the new animist thinkers who feel consciousness is not dependent on the brain and continues after death. How that consciousness might fit into universal consciousness is still unknown, I think. I would like to read any speculations about it. I get a lot of my thoughts about this from Rupert Sheldrake.
Universal Consciousness