I'm a pretty well-adjusted atheist now, but I was brought up on the idea that there was going to be some sort of afterlife. I did, at one point, give a lot of serious thought to this subject. To amend that, I still do, actually. You don't have to consider something plausible to really...feel curious about it. If you need something to exist to really believe in it, then my feeling is perhaps you could use some education on what it really means to believe. Then again, that wouldn't be the first of my opinions or ideas that don't really swallow well with most people. There are a number of ways I can explain why I spend so much time talking to a god who isn't there, but I accepted the part of myself that does that a long time ago. It's not something I try to pick apart anymore.
Well, one of the theories that I held back in those days was that, if I went through my life in pursuit of enlightenment, then I would be reborn into a more advanced and more enlightened society. Not in the sense of reward or punishment, mind you. More a sorting process in which like were put with like, so every person in every life is born very close to equal to one another. As you can see, I'm going with the "many possible worlds" model of reincarnation here. Now, this wouldn't necessarily have to be a more technologically advanced culture. People could just be more in tune with one another, perhaps through some form of remote empathy. It would be a society in which it would be perfectly appropriate, even expected, to go up and hug a complete stranger. It would be a society in which you could just sit down on a bridge somewhere and talk with someone for long hours, not once uttering a harsh word to one another. It would be a society that has been given the choice of having all possible work handled for them, whether by some magic or higher power or advanced technology, yet most people choose to perform some kind of work or other just for the joy of giving. The workplace would be a social gathering place in which people met in friendship and fellowship with one another, not a place where you had to be watchful of coworkers trying to pile their responsibilities onto you. The sort of afterlife I envision is one that I feel everyone deserves to have in this life. It's a world I would want my children to inherit.
I'm in no rush to drop dead, though, so I have plenty of time to work on that dream by my reckoning. Perhaps you can't really escape the inevitability of death, but I've learned to keep my mind within a theoretically potentially unlimited timeframe. I've found it's much better for my mental health. Yeah, I know I'm not going to live forever. No need to tell me that. I've just learned not to be a fatalist. Bad for the health, you know.
