Spiritual Programming (OT, but Python-inspired)

[Neal Becker]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:

> On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 13:38:47 -0800, UrsusMaximus wrote:
> 
>> It seems to me that, if anything of a person survives death in any way,
>> it must do so in some way very different from that way in which we
>> exist now.
> [snip]
> 
> I don't dare ask where your evidence for this hypothesis is, but I will
> ask what are your reasons for imagining this? What is the chain of thought
> that leads from:
> 
> Step 1: We live in a temporal world.
> 
> to:
> 
> Step N: Our ghost/soul must therefore live in a timeless state.
> 
> ?
> 
> Apart from wishful thinking of course. That's always the major component
> in any reasoning about the afterlife. Life is a process, not a thing --
> when a clock runs down and stops ticking, there is no essence of ticking
> that keeps going, the gears just stop. When I stop walking, there is no
> spirit of walk that survives me coming to a halt. I just stop walking.
> 
> 

Wishful thinking is only 1 part.  Historically, a big part of the hypothesis
of an afterlife is control.  As in, "you peasants must obey, and suffer
your difficult lives because you will be rewarded after death."  An even
more fundamental reason is that certain belief systems are viral - in that
they are self-perpetuating.