For the atheist, we look at authorship starting with the human authors. The Bible was written by humans. The Abrahamic faiths all have human authors for their sacred texts, and they believe God either inspired or directly dictated those passages. Atheists don’t believe that. The first reaction an atheist has to " . . . and the Lord says" is “Did he really? Pretty sure a human wrote that.”
There have also been other religions that made promises about the afterlife, and they have gone by the wayside.
Personally I’d find it even more impressive if it added to ones understanding and appreciation of the life one has right here and now. There is no eternity devoid of now.
If a person is honest and acknowledges their wickedness and is willing to turn from it, here is an answer.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
And
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
But if a person wants to be foolish and live a self centered life, here is a different answer.
Follow God because he wants to make you wealth, healthy, happy and wise. He wants to give you all the things your little ole heart could ask for. And when you die a painless death while asleep in your cozy bed you’ll wake up in…CANDY LAND!!!. Where all your dreams come true. THE END!
To me, the more interesting question is would you still value anything as sacred if you knew there will be no personal afterlife?
Just like everyone else atheists must decide what kind of life and community they want to be a part of and then lead a life compatible with that. It isn’t as simple as follow God or choose a self obsessed, despotic existence. That’s just silly.
Mark, without any doubt you have heard the Word of God. Until a person acknowledges the wickedness that is in them, they see no need to seek God’s forgiveness or His salvation from the evil within. So in obedience to what Jesus commanded but with sadness and with the desire for God to continue working with you to lead you to him, I will leave you now without any further communication in the future.
I can in no way imagine this is a breach of the rules of conduct on this forum, for it isn’t against truth, mercy, love or the Spirit and will of the Father.
This is the command of Jesus to His followers.
Mark 6:11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."
I am certainly not here to tell you what to believe. I can only comment on what I believe and why.
As I stated earlier, I look for independent and verifiable evidence. The claims of the Resurrection are in the texts themselves, so it can’t be independent evidence for the reliability of the texts. It’s a bit circular to use the texts as the basis for verifying the accuracy of the texts.
The first question I would ask is where is the evidence that something or somebody does live forever? The closest thing I have found is the cosmic microwave background.