Should you believe in Eternity?

I will tell you that I was not hoping to engage in this topic so soon as I do not know if we are ready this early into the study. However, since my cousin Nicole raised the issue in her post it is important to at least begin this critical discussion.

Nicole stated, "I do believe, for the most part, that religion can help us to live well. But what is the point of that, if ultimately it does not drive us into God’s arms? What is the point of living well here on earth, if our eternity is not secure in God’s presence?"

I am glad that we will be covering this many times again as we go through the bible. However, for the sake of full disclosure, let me begin by stating that I never liked this idea in the bible. Dangling out this carrot of some sort of eternal bliss feels like I am being manipulated. A great cosmic bribe...

I feel this is very important because to me it does not pass the "Good Parent" test. Rewards are a fact of life and I have used them in parenting but I have always understood and believed that though they work, they are not what I am ultimately striving for. I do not want my children to only perform when they have the chance of reward. I would like them to do what is right due to their inner quality and innate drive to improve themselves. Reward and punishment as the ultimate motivation? To me, that does not pass muster...

Over time, I have grown to believe that we are just interpreting it wrong (in addition to probably interpreting heaven and hell wrong -- but let's save that for later). I also believe that as we delve deeply into the holy books, the true interpretation will become manifest.

So, how do we directly answer the question on the "Should you believe scale"? Should you believe in eternal salvation? I certainly do believe there are clues that point to non-physical things. Things outside of ourselves like Jung's archetypes, deja-vu and destiny. So, there are clues that possibly bring us to believing in more than this physical existence.

On the other side of the coin, there are certainly religions that do not talk about eternal salvation as the ultimate aim of existence. For example, karma and reincarnation, eternal survival of the species (the eternal existence of humanity as a whole), and ancestral worship (not dishonoring the family).

So, I would have to say that it is too soon to answer this question. I may be taking the position of skeptic here amongst my other family members (whom I love and respect); however, I must be honest with myself. It is too important a question for us to rush into or to only account for a single viewpoint (i.e. from one religion).
It is also predicated on many other "should you believe questions" like ...

"Should you believe in an eternal soul?"
"Should you believe in Heaven?"
"Should you believe in Hell?"
*** "Should you believe in the necessity of faith?" (not whether you have faith but does faith have intrinsic value?) ***
"Should you believe that sin permanently scars your soul?"
"Should you believe in Sin?"
On and on ...

So, I guess I am saying that we first need to build our scaffolding of logic on as firm a ground as we can muster.
Also, for the benefit of my cousin, let me state that our intention of using the "Should you believe" filter in this discussion is to have some type of concrete, objective measure upon which we make these important life judgements. Thus we are attempting to analyze the value of a belief by understanding and measuring its effect on us as individuals, on society, on history and on the universe if we receive the blessing of that much discernment.
The basic premise here is that Beliefs leave behind clues. They leave marks in life and society. Sometimes it is just their footprints we have to measure them by. (As a supporting point, let me give a brief example of a belief that I feel is damaging and wrong -- the Catholic church's ban on birth control. While I will be happy to argue this point in detail later, suffice it to say that I see this belief as damaging to both society and families. One other easy supporting point here to clarify this -- the Jewish belief against pork should not be believed because we should not mix medical advice with spiritual necessity.)

Yes, in some ways, we are attempting to use some scientific analyses to religious questions. We are certainly not the first to do this ... and we will not be the last. That is ok as the search for truth is always a beneficial journey!