"Now, do you believe that it is rational to think that life, in one form or another, is eternal?"
The question is ambiguous. Does it mean a single life, or life in general? The answer to both interpretations I immediately see is, "No."
" I feel that I do have some control. I know that I have changed my beliefs, deliberately, over the decades. This is one of the reasons I have had to come up with new ways of writing them down. "
I suspect you have not analyzed the situation correctly. What I think that you had a belief, but reality perhaps made you question that belief. The fact that you are curious made you more open to other ideas. But the fundamental act of changing your belief was not voluntary. The new belief either made sense to you or it did not.
If you don't believe in Martian mole-men, then I'll never make it to Nirvana.
I do not believe that I am twisting the sincerely held beliefs of believers. To some extent, I'm sure I do ridicule on occasion, but I don't think I've ridiculed you on here. I've teased you a little and I've prodded you.
