Consider for a moment just how much magical thinking is required in order to sustain a belief in an afterlife.
Firstly you are required to believe there is actually a mystical life force / soul / spirit capable of sustaining an individuals personality and memories.
Secondly you are obliged to believe this life force is eternal and immortal in most cases.
Thirdly you need to become convinced that this life force / soul is magically activated on death otherwise how would an immortal indestructible force that carries your personality and memories be affected by brain tumours head injuries strokes and dementia ?
Fourthly you must believe that those affected by the conditions listed above have their mystical life force magically rewound to a time before the memory and personality were affected by said afflictions.
I'm pretty sure there are other necessary magical beliefs required that fit into this post but to me these are the main ones.
To me there is not one shred of evidence beyond the anecdotal that suggests it is possible for our personality to survive post mortem and quite a lot to suggest it doesn't. Think about it, if credible evidence of life after death existed it would be the most important news story in history, forget 9/11 or anything else.
Firstly you are required to believe there is actually a mystical life force / soul / spirit capable of sustaining an individuals personality and memories.
Secondly you are obliged to believe this life force is eternal and immortal in most cases.
Thirdly you need to become convinced that this life force / soul is magically activated on death otherwise how would an immortal indestructible force that carries your personality and memories be affected by brain tumours head injuries strokes and dementia ?
Fourthly you must believe that those affected by the conditions listed above have their mystical life force magically rewound to a time before the memory and personality were affected by said afflictions.
I'm pretty sure there are other necessary magical beliefs required that fit into this post but to me these are the main ones.
To me there is not one shred of evidence beyond the anecdotal that suggests it is possible for our personality to survive post mortem and quite a lot to suggest it doesn't. Think about it, if credible evidence of life after death existed it would be the most important news story in history, forget 9/11 or anything else.
