"Why believe in something awful...

@fmf said
You find the idea of NOT having everlasting life abhorrent. OK.

Yes. Death as an option compared to eternal life is abhorrent.

@secondson said
Because it's limited by the temporal.

You seem to be interested in the spiritual, but it seems you limit the extent of the experience of the spiritual to the finite and material. Notwithstanding your attempts to spiritualize human experience within the realm of the temporal.

The scope of things spiritual relative to the idea of life being limited by time is shortsighted at best.

Shortsighted?

@secondson said
Yes. Death as an option compared to eternal life is abhorrent.

Feeling that death is abhorrent and/or fearing death - and generally struggling to come to terms with death - is perhaps one of the psychological building blocks of almost all religions.

@fmf said
I understand that you prefer to think that you have eternal life than to think you don't but I don't see how that hope/expectation enhances your appreciation of the life you're living now; it would make more sense if you were claiming that the prospect of eternal life renders the life you are living now meaningless.

On the contrary, having eternal life, as I do in fact have it presently, makes the life I'm living in the here and now all the more joyful and meaningful knowing that in eternity what I do in this life will be reflected in the next.

@secondson said
Yes. Death as an option compared to eternal life is abhorrent.

I think the Catholic priest character in the comedy cited in the OP was speaking to people like you:

"Why believe in something awful when you can believe in something wonderful?"

@secondson said
On the contrary, having eternal life, as I do in fact have it presently, makes the life I'm living in the here and now all the more joyful and meaningful knowing that in eternity what I do in this life will be reflected in the next.

I get that you are asserting that it makes life more joyful and meaningful but you're not really saying why? Do you mean it gives you purpose, rules, fellowship with people who share your religious beliefs? "More joyful and meaningful" in that way?

@fmf said
The preference you have for the notion that you have eternal life is not evidence of eternal life.

And your preference for annihilation is not evidence for the cessation of life after death.

I know I have eternal life, and you know you don't. It's as simple as that, and that's all it is.

@secondson said
in eternity what I do in this life will be reflected in the next.

How will it be "reflected"?

@fmf said
It is within the capacity of the human intellect to conceive of being able to walk around invisible, talk to dead people in a seance, or to practice clairvoyance, but this capacity is not evidence that any of those things are real.

It is within the capacity of the human intellect to conceive of all manner of things that are not real.

That's why God gave us His Word, so that our "intellect" isn't deceived by the lie.

Of which that God doesn't exist is foremost.

@secondson said
And your preference for annihilation is not evidence for the cessation of life after death.

It's not a "preference". It's a realization. It's acceptance. It's being at peace with it. You say you have proof that all 100 billion or so humans who have ever lived are still living in some shape or form, but you are refusing to say what it is? Is it the religious doctrine you subscribe to? Is that your proof?

@fmf said
The burden of proof for your extraordinary claim is surely yours. We both agree that the 100 billion are dead. But you assert they are still alive in some form. What is your proof?

LOL

God said so.

@secondson said
It is within the capacity of the human intellect to conceive of all manner of things that are not real.

That's why God gave us His Word, so that our "intellect" isn't deceived by the lie.

Of which that God doesn't exist is foremost.

Who is telling this "lie"?

@secondson said
LOL

God said so.

You have filled the God figure shaped hole in your life then.

@fmf said
Having an unlimited supply of heroin is not going to make the savouring of each fix more precious. Unless you mean 'worth a lot of money' when you use the word "precious"?

Wouldn't knowing that each "fix" is certain more precious than the uncertainty of not knowing when or where the next will come from?

@secondson said
It is within the capacity of the human intellect to conceive of all manner of things that are not real.

I think spirituality pertains to our capacity to speculate about ourselves given our faculty for abstraction and philosophizing a.k.a. our human spirit. I think religiosity is one of the products of this.