Can you explain your thoughts on afterlife? I'm trying to make sense of it.

Hi,

Full disclosure, I would describe myself as an atheist who came from a religious background, but I promise you I'm not trying to make fun of anyone here with my questions. I'm just trying to understand.

So I guess I'll start with what some basic assumptions - I think (correct me if I'm wrong) most of you believe in some sort of afterlife, the details don't matter here as long as people continue to experience something after the body dies.

My question I guess comes down to how this makes sense with what we know about the brain? For example, we know where memories are stored in our brains, and we know that when that part of the brain is damaged enough, those memories are gone. Same goes for higher order reasoning in the frontal lobe, and basically all the other functions too.

So is the thought that you have some sort of "soul" that after you die will continue to be capable of your reasoning, accessing your memories, forming new ones, etc? Why can the soul not assist your brain with these functions when the brain is injured during life? If this "soul" can only perform these functions after death, does that mean it doesn't interact with your body at all during life? Wouldn't that mean the brain is performing all your experiences now? So then by what definition is this soul even "you"?

I'm just trying to understand the position, please don't take offense.