A&Q: Is There an Afterlife? - and other questions about the Unification Church teaching on the "spiritual world"

I always have an urge to raise my hand and ask questions after I hear a sermon. My wife tells me it's a bad habit. I'm always saying "yeah-but." Please forgive me. I mean well. In my view there is an afterlife, but for me it's in a poetic, symbolic and metaphorical sense. I do respect other's beliefs in an afterlife, but I think it's important to ask questions.

QUESTION: Is there an afterlife?

Well, it seems to me, if we're going to ask that question, it begs more questions:

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife in order to be religious and love God?

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife in order to be a complete child of God?

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife to value this life?

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife to value and "love your neighbor?"

* Is there an afterlife after the afterlife?

* Is there an afterlife after the afterlife after the afterlife?

* Is there a before-life?

* Is there a before-life before the before-life?

* Aren't these kind of questions an endless argument?

* If the afterlife is "eternal," doesn't eternal mean timelessness, no beginning and no end?

* If there is no beginning, doesn't "eternal life" mean that in this present life we are eternal?

* Does our eternal aspect really require another "world" besides this one? (e.g. "spirit world")

* Aren't these discussions about an afterlife largely symbolic and metaphorical?

* Isn't this symbolic and metaphorical nature of afterlife expressed in verses like:

"Let the dead bury their dead" 
~Luke 9:"60?

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"
~Galatians 2:20?

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."
~Mark 8:35?

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
~John 12:24?

"so shall it be in the end of this world."
~Matthew 13:40?

* Doesn't speculating on a literal afterlife harm our ability to be truly present in this life and live in this present moment?

* Doesn't speculating on a literal afterlife harm our ability to truly value the precious and fleeting relationships we share with loved ones?

* Could the discussions about a "spirit world," in the Unification Church Divine Principle be symbolic and metaphorical?

* Isn't the most important thing we learn from any religious teacher expressed in the Golden Rule? (whether in this life or any other) :

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."
~Matthew 7:12 

* Doesn't science tells us that all energy is conserved and cannot be created or destroyed?

* Isn't eternal life really an expression of our (already existing) eternal "oneness" with God?

* Doesn't oneness really mean oneness?

* Doesn't our dreamless sleep each night give us a kind of daily hint (practice) about the afterlife?

* Don't people's ideas about the afterlife and God vary from faith to faith, and even within faith groups, and don't people have inherent intrinsic value above and beyond and independent of anyone's particular religious beliefs? 

* Wouldn't a loving parental God feel that each of his children had irreplaceable and unique intrinsic value regardless of whether He/She was around or not and independent of Him or Her?

Respectfully and with love
Thank you for listening