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RE: Forever is a really, really long time
If you do it in the expectation of a reward, it is not love. Each religion has a different story. They all have the same moral teaching. They all involve the same "Higher Power". (See below.) The purpose of the story is to put "Higher Power" into human terms so that people can be "wholesomely connected" with Higher Power, which basically means that you see yourself as a part of something larger, from which you understand your purpose for living and your duty in any given situation.
Punishment and reward are a persistent theme in theology, across nearly all religions. I take a bit of exception to Buddhism on this point because Buddha made a sort of scientific inquiry across a range of experience. He knew wealth, tried asceticism and found something in the middle that worked for him. He was also very clear about how we are all connected. That's the higher power part.
What I find most interesting about religion (Abrahamic religion in particular), now that I'm thinking about it, is that it makes no serious inquiry into the source of "evil", or challenging behavior in kids and adults. "Evil" is a term used to ascribe a supernatural cause to challenging behavior in people. Rather than consider the possibility that challenging behavior in kids is a learned behavior taught by parents, the term "evil" is applied as an excuse to "beat the evil" out of the child.
This is why I've been sort of beating the drum about skills. Punishment and reward don't teach skills, they reinforce behavior. Teach the skills that people need to solve their problems and the challenging behavior goes away. No punishment, reward, or moral judgment is required.
The carrot/stick aspect of religious myth is universal because it works. Set aside the "population control" and other negative aspects and focus on the function of religion to help people live their daily lives. Religious myth has evolved to be effective across the spectrum of personal details, from rich, educated, and wise individuals to illiterate and desperately poor peasants to miserable inmates in prisons, hospitals, and asylums. In all of these varied contexts, religious myth enables people who are not wise and who do not have life experience to imitate wisdom by making wise choices.
I've just decided, moments ago, to suspend my involvement with all social media. I'll be checking in here occasionally, perhaps every 8 days or so. Regarding steemit and the STEEM blockchain, I'm skeptical regarding whether it will survive and whether it is suitable as a social media platform, so I'm going to take a "wait and see" posture to see how things develop over the next few months. Bye for now.
See you around later then.