I have to agree that the idea of an afterlife only works when it hasn't really been thought out, as a defense mechanism. I just can't think of an 'ultimate happiness', because there's bound to be flaws with anything. Conceptually, a permanent state of 'feeling good' is hard to find fault with, but it would mean no one would bother doing anything, other than just exist in a 'high' state. Of course, nobody would care that that would be the state of things since they're already satisfied, but it's just unimaginable to me, since for humans happiness is tied to certain events and processes; it needs a context, so that sort of afterlife may as well be a different existence. But then again, human existence inherently contains moments of suffering, since the 'context' for our happiness is mostly the alleviating of suffering. I don't see the chasing of arbitrary goals for eternity as ultimately satisfying, but existing in a permanent state of 'completeness' doesn't seem appealing either. It just seems like the only true closure to life would be to cease to exist. Maybe I just don't like the idea of permanent happiness since it would mean the erasure of my identity/ego since we all have an attachment to our sense of self, but I suppose it wouldn't matter once I'm in that state. I guess I just don't see a difference between eternal bliss and nonexistence at that point.
