<i>Or are you saying that that now makes sense, and the remaining axiomatic disagreement is about non-existence itself?</i><p>I&#x27;m sorry to say that I have no idea what you&#x27;re talking about up to this point.  But it doesn&#x27;t seem to matter, as I think we agree that the axiomatic disagreement is about whether non-existence itself is something to fear (at least, I think we agree on what we&#x27;re disagreeing about).<p><i>However, I would ask that you consider the possibility of the two not being incompatible: believing in an afterlife is not incompatible with trying to make this life as good as possible, and even if you believe it can&#x27;t be made perfect, that doesn&#x27;t stop it from getting asymptotically better. .... I&#x27;m not bothered when others have faith; it does bother me, though, when faith in a higher power causes people to give up on humanity. Don&#x27;t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.</i><p>I think you&#x27;re misunderstanding me still on where I stand on this.  I think it&#x27;s my responsibility to do what I can to improve things here where I am, both in my community and on my entire planet.  Admittedly, that&#x27;s also integrated with my faith, and it&#x27;s certainly not an ideal I wish to discard (which in turn makes the idea that my faith makes me wish to discard that ideal all the more ludicrous).<p>Let me be clear.  I have given up on humanity&#x27;s ability to fix itself.  I have not given up on a higher power&#x27;s ability to change individual humans into people who can make this world a better place.  And that includes everything from being more charitable, empathetic, and forgiving every day to having motive and drive to throw away personal riches and futures for a lifetime of thankless service in the trenches of fighting poverty, corruption, unjust war, and more.  Not all of us can be Bill Gates and set up a foundation that can really make a difference.  But I do believe that everything starts in the hearts of individual people.  Unfortunately many people are too petty, selfish, or jaded to care, despite the rare amazing stories of real selflessness.  The higher power I believe gives me back hope for people to change.<p>Sorry for the late reply.  :)