Great Topic!
My philosophy of Exaltism explores this topic deeply. Exaltism is an atheistic standpoint but it stresses the definition of what God is. For example, of God can do anything and has unlimited freedom, that God would not be worth worshiping, as that God could or would be malevolent. In retrospect, if God can only do good, then it doesn’t have the freedom that a God might as well have. I explore this topic deeply in my Ethics of Divinity post.
God, to me, is many things. If God existed, I would contend that our lives would be dramatically different. As I see it, humans are already building a paradise for themselves. Most of the developed world has heating and air conditioning, for example. Even my section 8 apartments have it. We are building a more comfortable and enjoyable life for everybody - thus reaching towards paradise. Humans are amazing in this notion.
So much so, that I would stress that humans, or transhuman, or posthuman, will become the next thing. I see nature, our sun, stars, black holes, universes, multiverses, and the Omniverse as dormant perfect. It is perfect it isn’t aware that it is - it is utterly what it is and nothing more. On the other hand, live, natural selection, artificial selection, and later on divine selection would be considered living imperfections. It is impossible for one person to be omnipresent, or omniscient.
The core of what I believe is taking the best parts of both - awareness, freedom, acute benevolence and wisdom, of living organisms and fuse them together with nature, with the Sun, with the supermassive black hole, with the universe, and eventualy the omniverse, so we then can create a living perfection. I believe that the afterlife consists of being part of this reality - and getting anything and everything you want all the time with no consequences. You could be a God to a new universe, you could fuck thousands of virgins and never get an STD, it would essentially be life without the consequences of such.
And this reality that I see everybody and everything become as is to me, perfection. It is God. We will be a part of it. Everything will be a part of it. The past does not get erased anymore - it still carries on. I can still watch George Carlin on DVD, or listen to an Elvis Presley song. But that is just the beginning. The afterlife consists of being you, but being perfect in the material world. I am a monist, an atheist, and a type-physicalist. I don’t believe in spirits, ghosts, and I believe that for a long, long time after you die there is a period of transition where you will not exist but in the advent of new technology you will exist again, and this time you’ll live indefinitely. And you’ll want it too. Trust me.