(no subject)

I wonder how people invented life after death. Many cultures have this concept and it appears that they came up with it independently from each other.

One way to think about it would be to take a Hobbesian perspective, "and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." The perspective entails lots of PTSD cases and associate with them bad dreams where dead people come back to haunt the living.

I can also see how this belief can benefit a society: it converts a one-time social transaction into a recurring one, making long-term commitments more probable.

Quote of the Day

He was certainly a very happy man, and afforded no occasion to have any complaint made of fortune on his account. He it was who alone had three of the most desirable things in the world, - the government of his nation, and the high priesthood, and the gift of prophecy. For the Deity conversed with him, and he was not ignorant of any thing that was to come afterward.
--- Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. [Para. 67]. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.