May I ask a question?
If we're here to live life, yada yada and then just die-no after life...then what is our purpose to even living?
We all know everything has a purpose. And everything on Earth seems to have no problem doing what they were made to do...but its the humans who were given a mind to think and speak. So i just have a hard time thinking that I'm human and i just live however I want, die and bang. thats it. end. What was the purpose?? It just seems a waste to me.
Whot was yeur purpose if yeu do live on afterwards? Does having an afterlife actually make yeur life mean more than without? Just because YEU PERSONALLY live longer, does it mean that it intrinsically makes yeur life more valuable, especially since virtually every religion's definition of an afterlife states yeu won't remember yeur life?
If anything, the afterlife has absolutely zero effect on the purpose of life at all, it doesn't affect anything in any way shape or form. The existance of 'god' or whotever may very well affect it, but the lack of an afterlife literally does nothing to change the purpose of yeur life.
Unless yeu seriously believe that the only reason for life is to be a slave.
Because that's all 'endless worship of god without any reward for doing so' would literally be. All work, no pay? That is slavery.
In that case, the concept of an afterlife as a reward can be used to make sense, I suppose. It requires the use of a pretty vengeful and egotistical god for it to be valid, but that is pretty much how most descriptions seem to be.
Many people, however, believe that if they helped one person, if they made someone's life better, changed something in the world for the better, they served a useful purpose.
And some just feel as long as their family line continues, then all is well.
Personally, I figure that we're all doomed to die anyway, someday the human species will be extinct, the sun will die out, everything I've EVER accomplished ever will be meaningless, anyone who knew me will be dead, anything I touched will be gone, anything I affected will be lost to time. In this case, the meaning of life is self enjoyment.
I don't need to carry on my family line, they're all going to die off eventually anyway. I don't need a monument in my name, it'll crumble someday. I don't need history books written about me, they'll be changed and lost eventually when someone decides to remove me from history because I'm inconvenient, or warp things so much there's no truth left. I don't need to improve the lives of other people who will be dead as well.
I need to improve my life, and enjoy it, and take care of the people I love.
Beyond that, religion is only useful if yeu accept god as being an egotistical ass. If yeu think he's a nice guy, then the afterlife doesn't affect yeur life's meaning.