[Matt R.]

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What I'm curious about is what makes you think a God like the one you refer to, is even capable of granting an after-life? To me, it seems more likely that the God you're describing cannot.

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Lestat,
Yes, I tend not to make claims on what I think God can or cannot do. But given that he is responsible for the creation of our universe, it would seem reasonable that he has the power to create the universe in such a way where consciousness could continue to exist past biological death.

I will use an analogy that I think is fairly close to how I view it (I've seen similar analogies to the nature of God on here). If you imagine the creation of say, a computer program or system, and somehow the programs that are present in the system are self-aware, you could say this "system" is similar to our universe. The program follows certain rules, just as we must follow physical laws. Of course this program has a creator (analogous to God) which programmed this universe. Let's say the entities in the program were smart enough to deduce what these rules were and they perform science experiments, practice philosophy and mathematics, etc. Now just because these entities within the program can deduce the rules (just like how we use science) does not mean that nothing created those rules, or the program itself.

So how does this relate to the afterlife? Pretending I was the programmer -- if I knew that my programs were self-aware and concerned themselves with the thought of an afterlife (i.e. they did not want to cease to exist), I would grant them an afterlife if it was within my power. Now the programmer can simply make a backup copy of his self-aware entities, and they would continue to exist past the death that they observe *within* the program. There is no way it is possible that the entities can gather evidence of this process or deduce how it works. But it is there, even if they don't know it.

Similarly, in our universe I think it would be impossible for us to scientifically observe the mechanism by which God grants an afterlife. But that it not to say he is not capable of it. Actually, I believe that if there is an afterlife, it if firmly rooted in physical law. Consider how our brain perceives space-time is completely incorrect -- it is almost "magical" how it really works. Given how crazy the workings of our universe are (the parts we cannot directly observe), I don't think it is out of the question that there is some mechanism which we can't currently scientifically observe that could extend human consciousness past organic death.