On an episode of the Discovery Channel show Curiosity that aired in 2011 called “Did God Create the Universe?” Hawking noted that humans were free to believe what they wanted and that in his view:
No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.
If there is a so called god, it is more of a Decartian Prime Mover. It is not omnicient nor omnipotent. It is subject to all the laws of nature it created. In a sense, reincarnation exists. Matter is neither created nor destroyed according to the the law of conservation of mass. The molecules that are me once rode the tail of a comet, were primordial soup and part of a dinosaur's hide. When I die, the molecules that are me will nourish new life. The soul is the good and evil left behind when the last breath leaves your lips. Consciouness is a complex chemical electrical miracle called the mind. When the juice is turned off, consciousness is lost. But our deeds can live on to influence other lives. In this way we can become immortal.
♥ My short version is 'Eternal life is found through the body.' The long version is 'Only the consciousness/the mind, 'who' we are, is Born and Born again, very slowly our entire lives. Only that which is born is subject to death.
A prerequisite of Birth, is to not to have previously existed, 'who' we are has never existed before. A requirement of death is to no longer exist. Our Bodies is 'what' we are. They are never 'born' but are delivered alive, they begin their spiritual/breathing lives with their first breath, and end them with their last. 'What' we are existed before delivery, and exists after the consciousness dies. Our bodies are recycled down into atoms to be redistributed in the cycles of nature and life.
I love your version.
Very much so!
We have no way of telling what may happen to us exactly, when we die, but no matter what, we should make the most of the life we have now.