Afterlife, I'd be happy if it were true.....

[maestroanth]

The biggest mistake you made is here:

One thing I was thinking is that a prime motivator for man to create God is the need for immortality and our discomfort with the permanence of death.

You assumed the bold line, permanence of death that is. You actually don't know, and scientific evidence suggests another big bang btw, that if you follow the big crunch to the core. Being a possible scenario, the end might be another start.

You assumed; nothing more, nothing less. Your assumption will not have an effect on reality, never would it affect it too.
Reality is reality.
What's reality? it stops where your hope stops. If you hope to die forever, then that's your reality.

Hubble's law says the universe is expanding at an exponential rate which suggests a 'big freeze' rather than a big crunch.........