Life after death?

[Jenny A]

Sure. We can do many things that have lasting effect both good and bad after we die. But then so can fault-lines, volcanoes, rivers, trees, comets, stars, and various other things you probably wouldn't consider to have souls.

But in terms of deep time, i.e. billions and billions of years, nothing we do is likely to last.

This doesn't trouble me. I still would like to do good that lasts after my death. It matters to me because it matters to me. There's nothing mystical about it. What matters is that I have a conscious brain here and now.

I'm not exactly speaking in facts and figures, but I'm not adding some sort of magic to the observable, either. I'm saying that said 'magic' IS the observable.
I'd think you agree that people, at least (what religion comes from and centers on) don't equate bad things caused by chemical attacks to bad things caused by volcanoes, no matter how similar the effect, because what humans do simply is distinct from what non-humans do on a social level.
But nothing we do will last. Science and religion say the same thing. On a physical level, anyways. But the intangible truth that every dead person did exist and did affect the lives of other people won't disappear just because there will be no one to remember it.

Without people (or other intelligent beings) there is no morality at all. Is a tornado immoral? How about a lion eating a zebra alive? HIV? These things are all amoral. Morality does not apply to their actions.

My point is that the intangible truth that every dead person did exist and affected others is in no way different that what other things that existed in the universe did. The only difference between what people do and what a comet does, is that people place value what other people do. That's a good thing, but it doesn't have any lasting value beyond people's memories. For all practical purposes it will disappear when there is no one to remember it.

Without existing people it's an amoral universe.