Did he go on to his reward?

Just had a relative die. Very religious. His family believes he will be resurrected, receive a new, glorious body, and worship the God of the Bible for eternity in heaven. If this brings his family comfort, all well and good. At the same time, I can't help but wonder about the basis for such a belief.

As far as I know, there is not a scintilla of verifiable, testable or repeatable evidence to justify the idea that life continues after death. The peculiar and specific pattern of neuronal connections that we acquire over a lifetime of being conscious are destroyed when our brain cells cease to metabolize and begin to decay. From what do we build a belief in a Christian resurrection?

Those we interact and bond with affect out own pattern of personality, their consciousness becoming part of our own, such that their cessation causes pain and loss in us. Naturally we long to interact with them again. So believing in a resurrection may bring comfort. But does that make it real?

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