I recalled recently a conversation I had once with an old and dear friend, a woman who was one of my high school history teachers, and who has known me since I was born. We talked about a lot of things outside of class. Music, poetry, film, love… And eventually, religion.
One of the problems she had with the concept of atheism was that she just couldn't envision "nothing." The concept of a complete void was one that she couldn't handle. In other words, she couldn't imagine not existing. She couldn't imagine her consciousness suddenly ending upon her death, with nothing to follow.
Granted, it's a very difficult thing to grasp, on both intellectual and emotional levels. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it hard to imagine, too. And I think this very concept is probably the single most relevant part of the origin of theism.
We invented an afterlife, probably before we even invented deities. Early humans had no idea what happened when a person died. Suddenly, there was simply no life in the body that used to be our friend/mate/child/whatever. There was just a corpse.
Eventually, the question became so urgent that some sort of answer was needed. And the invented answer, one that seemed to satisfy just about everyone, was that the dead person's spirit had gone to another realm. A realm devoid of human misery. The concept evolved into Heaven, the Happy Hunting Ground, Valhalla, and countless others.
Then there's the concept of reincarnation. Some people find it easier to imagine coming back to live life over again. To some, this is an infinite progression; to others, a temporary thing, wherein one reaches the true afterlife only after mastering this one, no matter how many times it takes.
Either way, it's easier to believe in something after we die than in nothingness, and I've said as much in this forum before.
I also feel that, in addition to this concept being the prime cause of the invention of theism, the difficulty in accepting nothingness is also the prime reason that theism continues to thrive. I've also spoken before of how our world continues to become a more and more frightening place with each passing year. The more afraid we are of the world, the more we want to believe that something better waits for us.
The truly sad result of this, in my opinion, is that fewer and fewer people are willing to try to make this world a better place. They think of some imaginary next world and don't want to deal with the problems in the real one. This goes beyond apathy and becomes at times outright rejection.
Is it any wonder that our world continues to deteriorate, especially when we have it within our power to change things for the better?
If more people were to accept the fact that lives come one to a customer (even to cats), then more people would realize that work needs to be done here. The work needs to be done by people who care about this world. Those who feel the next world is the one that matters will never fully apply themselves to healing this one. All the money that is sent to churches will never be used to make this world a better place in any but the most superficial ways. It will only be used to further that church and its belief system, which will invariably include preparing everyone for the next world.
In the end, we have but one life. It's right here, in this mundane, often frightening world. Placing our hopes and expectations into some fictitious afterlife can only be harmful to the here and now. By accepting the fact that life after death is a myth, we can turn our energies to making this world a better place.
