I think scientific materialism is unable to account for subjectivity. Atoms, black holes, galaxies, even the brain are merely symbols which we have somehow been able to create out of nothing. As such, I don´t think I=my brain is a fair statement. I am able to create representations but as such I cannot be equivalent to them. I have the ability to create rules of logic and the trajectories of propositions to their conclusions, but I also have the ability to doubt the efficacy of language, even of the reality of my perceptions. What am I, the representations I generate or the force that generates them? To you I am the sum of my actions, and you assume that these actions are the results of thoughts or impulses I experience. But I am not their slave, I can rebel. I can refuse reason just as you refuse faith. I am able to transcend. I don´t necessarily think I´m going to Heaven after I die, but my essence may persist, even if only through others. To crudely paraphrase many great thinkers, nature does not know beginnings and ends, only progressive transformations. I can talk about this forever, I don´t have any firm beliefs one way or the other because this question is, like most interesting questions, beyond the limits of experience.
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