Afterlife vs Not

[Anomalocaris]

But, that trillion or five or ten will be up at some point and most likely the human race will be done long long before this. The current estimate is 13 billion years from beginning too now. Human existence in that time compared to a 24hr clock is not even one tick of the second hand. A long time indeed. But none of that time before mattered until consciousness observed it. If we develop the science to defend against every threat imaginable we can't possibly stop the degradation of the entire universe. When consciousness ceases weather we have religious myth or the highest science, all belief/knowledge ceases too. I do prefer a scientific approach, religion for the most part has done much damage.

One might take it the other way and say consciousness is utterly irrelevent to the universe, and matters only to our vainglorious but insignificant selves

If we modify the universe to defend against every threat, how is the universe not upgraded by our own vainglorious standard rather than degraded? Afterall, we do consider walls and roofs that defends us against the cold and wet an upgrade to the bare patch of dirt on which we might otherwise sleep.

I agree, I create my own purpose daily, see the poem "Invictus". However I am afraid I cannot see how we can be as gods. Clinical immortality, control of our environment, populating the edges of the universe, all of these yes. But this too shall pass.

It's not quite worthwhile unless it promises to satisfy the most irrational whim of our most extravagant vainity? And how is this approach not asking for religion to come and do you damage?