An Idealist facebook friend said he preferred the afterlife presented in this video titled, "Vistas of Infinity - The far Reaches of Consciousness". The video seemed to present a non-Christian idealist version of the afterlife. Though, I might be incorrectly identifying the worldview.
The following is my quick reaction to the video that I posted back on facebook [with its limitations as a social media app]:
I watched that video. I understand you're an idealist of sorts. I'm open to the possibility of divine idealism, though I don't positively hold it.
Human nature has two opposing tendencies wanderlust and homesickness. On the one hand we long for new experiences/adventure/novelty, on the other hand for stability and predictability. Imagine you were continually and endlessly inundated with unpredictable experiences and sensations with no rest/sleep/respite like when someone trips on acid. It would be nightmarish. On the other hand, imagine sameness and monotony where you only experience the same thing eternally. That would be maddening [in this life we can barely endure eating the same meal for more than a week].
These tendencies line up with the age old philosophical problems of the one and the many, of unity and diversity, of rationality and irrationality, or determinism and indeterminism, or the pluralism and change/flux of Heraclitus, and the monism and stasis of Parmenides/Zeno. I agree with Christian and Calvinist philosopher Cornelius Van Til that these problems are resolved in the Christian God who is both one and many [wherein neither unity and plurality is more ultimate than the other].
Given the afterlife proposed in the video, there's no guarantee that the anyone will resolve the mental/psychic/emotional conflict in the next life any better than in this. There's no guarantee that someone will help us out. Or that any "avatar" or "ascended master" is actually is telling us the truth about reality. He might be lying or sincerely wrong.
There may be no hope in ever coming to the truth about reality. Since there's no absolute omnipotent and omniscient personality as in theism to vouchsafe genuine knowledge or security. Since there wouldn't be a God who could protect people, the "higher intelligences" mentioned in the video could exploit them for their evil ends, or torment them out of pleasure and vindictiveness. In effect or in reality being tormented by real or practical "demons". [Note: Some suspect that the evil personalities people encounter in lucid dreaming are in fact demons, not merely manifestations of one's negative psyche].
Given the video's afterlife, you could never be certain you've hit bedrock reality. It's like the proverbial nightmare of trying to wake up in a dream, waking up, then realize you're still dreaming, and waking up from that dream and realizing again you're still dreaming ad infinitum. The nightmare would be self-perpetuatingly intensifying. There'd be no escape from such a nightmare.
Given that video, there's no guarantee of eschatological justice as in theism where there's a God who is knowledgeable enough (omniscient), wise enough (omnisapient), and powerful enough (omnipotent) to mete out justice. Given the video's afterlife, there would be no unifying principle that makes knowledge in life satisfactory. Part of the reason why some atheists hold to the error of scientism is that is satisfies that longing for knowledge, stability and unity. Theism provides that overarching unifying principle by which reality can be judged and measured. It was the Christian conception of God that provided the grounding for the scientific revolution because it provided the foundation of our expectation of an ordered universe which reveals the working and rationally consistent mind of the absolute personality, God. Nor in such an afterlife as the video provides would there be a unifying principle of virtue and morality. Socrates' proposed the famous Euthyphro dilemma because he wanted to know the pious/holy/virtuous irrespective of what gods or men thought. Since, the finite gods could disagree. Ares could advocate for war and Aphrodite for love and they could disagree [or literally battle it out] for all eternity. In theism, the good, the true and the beautiful [that which many of the Greek philosophers sought] meet at the top. There is no dilemma where either there are absolutes outside of God, OR that God's will is so arbitrary that he can decree hatred to be a virtue. Some form of Divine Command Essentialism is true and God just IS the good/holy, the true and the glorious/beautiful, and He wants to share that with His creatures. [cf. R. C. Sproul's "The Soul's Quest for God: Satisfying the Hunger for Spiritual Communion with God"]
In theism, an unopposable omnipotent God controls all the flux in reality [Rev. 19:6], providing an environment for both the predictability and stability we long for out of our homesickness, as well as an environment of novelty to satisfy our wanderlust for newness and adventure [cf. C.S. Lewis' "The Last Battle" and his sermon "The Weight of Glory"]. Heaven will be ever new AND ever the same. Lewis talked about how the dimensions of heaven are fixed, yet "The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets.The inside is larger than the outside."
Eph. 2:7
that in the AGES [plural] TO COME He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
1 Cor. 2:9
But as it is written: " Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
1 John 3:
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e-ZB3sZNtL3_7IOtyPkCbimW6F0DX-FC/view?usp=sharing
When I was a Child I Thought as a Child by Edward D. Griffin
https://web.archive.org/web/20161122180010/http://www.puritansermons.com/sermons/griffin1.htm
Heaven by Edward D. Griffin
https://web.archive.org/web/20161006020316/http://www.puritansermons.com/sermons/griffin2.htm
