I should clarify - I know where I stand on this, but like any good sociologist I want to sample the population. Thanks to those who responded here.
The common thread in those responses seems to be that we agree that no one knows for sure - yet many people claim that they do! Evangelical preachers, prophets, imams, gurus, etc. have all claimed to "know" about the afterlife because they have seen it, been to it, or been in direct contact with the powers that run it. How do we reconcile these reports? Is it all just wishful thinking, that for some turns into delusion? Do we just write those people off as whackos, or have they had some kind of spiritual experience that we haven't?
More discussion, please.
Eternity, continued...
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As most long-term readers will know, I label myself a shama-wicca-paga-druid. I have studied Peruvian Shamanism, Wicca, and done a *little* reading with Druidism. I can say that my experiences give me no doubt that there is an afterlife...or at least something beyond this mortal realm. I have seen and experienced far too much to be otherwise convinced. What that looks like or what it might entail? I don't know. I've never asked. Perhaps now I will. :)
i am mentally swimming in derrida and theory, so my answer would probably be that what is important is not that the idea of afterlife/eternity exists, but how that idea is created and what systems of opposition maintain the perceived meaning implicit in the system...
personally i believe people are hard wired to believe, and that relativity in physics carries over to spiritual ideas as well - if nothing is lost, just changed, some form of afterlife makes sense... the belief that you know completely and exclusively what that afterlife looks like strikes me as a bit off, but i am no more qualified to diminish their spiritual experiences than they would be to diminish mine... despite what they might think ;)
Wackos.
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