I didn't ask you these questions so that I could have your epiphany to apply to my own life, and I didn't ask because I'm searching for a paradigm that might work for lost me; I asked because you are positing an analogy from Gödel's mathematical logic that you feel "has found the Achilles heel of rational thought", and you are applying this analogy to my question about the existence of the afterlife in order to assert that "there are truths that we can never know". I've told you elsewhere that I find your reasoning [applied to this topic] spurious, evasive and a trifle smug. I don't know why people can't or refuse to stay on topic, without making false and illogical assumptions, without addressing the issue sans the distractions of analogical or anecdotal evidence, and without relying on silly abstractions. I don't understand why direct questions cannot be answered directly and honestly.

Your Thanksgiving story or testimonial is a very poignant one. It is told with humility, grace, much compassion [especially towards yourself], and it demonstrates an openness and eagerness to begin a healing process. You recounted the narrative beautifully and accurately. I know those abject, barren fields just out of East St. Louis that lead to Belleville, Il, and into Fairview Heights. Those fields now sport strip clubs and biker bars. Maybe not when you did your pilgrimmage, but when I lived in St. Louis. Anyway, that's irrelevant. What's pertinent is that you were at rock-bottom and were induced to rekindle a dormant faith. You lit the flame and it has burned brightly ever since. It's a good story. It fits the type. And it serves to found your faith. It also has an irrational core, it seems, that you can square against your reading of Gödel, and then apply to your professional life. You're happy to accept that the ineffability of faith may find irrational proofs in different parts of your life. And so you can comfortably say, "that's how faith works". But that answer is a non-answer. It's also a patronizing answer.

If god exists, then that god is immortal, transcendent and infinite, correct? Christians believe that god's only son, Jesus, gave his life for them, because they are sinners, but they also believe [as an article of faith] that their messiah rose from the dead to offer them everlasting hope, and that one day they too will rise, their love of him will be rewarded and they'll join him in heaven. This must be earned, however, because of the Fall from Grace, and the expulsion from Eden, shows human weakness. If god exists at all, and you believe god does exist, then you also accept these beliefs. You say you're not concerned about the afterlife, that you're working on this one. Ok, but in working on this one your goal surely is to please your god, to do as you were commanded to do, and if you perform well you will be rewarded. You believe you'll be rewarded, don't you? Otherwise, what's the point in believing in god at all? Otherwise, what is your god? Some finite judge keeping you on the straight-n-narrow? Your god is not going to consign you to oblivion if your love-pact remains intact. So you must have some thought for your soul, no? Your soul belongs to your god, and this soul will survive your earthly existence, right? You do believe this, don't you?

Finally, being close to god is also being close to god's promise and plan for you. Isn't this so? And it's not that I think the afterlife is important, it's that you do. Your living in the moment is only preparation for your infinite future with your god: If your life-span is 85 years at most, maybe more, and your death-span is infinity, then shouldn't you be tailoring your short span to your long and future one? Shouldn't you be mindful of your soul's afterlife? It's going to be in heaven a long long time, so shouldn't you be working this one as preparation for that one? You finish by saying, "I believe, therefore I shall be", but what shall you be? When shall you be what you shall be? This isn't some idle contingency clause you've just articulated, it's an etiological one where the consequence that 'you shall be' flows directly and logically from the cause that 'you believe'. The relationship between your faith and your afterlife is expressed very rationally here, almost has a Cartesian ring to it. But the fact is you do very much believe in an afterlife. The other fact is you have no rational basis for your belief, but maybe that's how faith works.

You can't answer the question, why do you believe in an afterlife: It remains a mystery that can only be arbitrated by ready-to-fit abstractions. You're ok with that. I'm not. You've found your answer, and so have I. Yours is wrong. Mine is right. And mine makes more sense than yours because I don't have to rely on abstractions like you do.