Love Is Memory

The story

Am I one or ninety-nine?

Will I have a memory of my life in the hereafter? If I don’t, then isn’t that the same afterlife that an atheist or agnostic believes in? You die and simply cease to exist.

Some people believe your consciousness merges with a “universal” consciousness. But what difference does that make if I still cease to exist as an individual? Maybe there’s a collective memory of who I was but doesn’t it seem nihilistic if “I” am no longer “me”?

I have to think there must be an individual. And that, in my limited understanding, is one of the fundamental points of Christianity. That the individual is sacred and loved.