It depends on the nature of the afterlife. In that regard “afterlife” is like “God” in that there are so many different versions of what the term means that making the belief pay rent in any reasonable amount of time can be difficult. But if one looks at most traditional afterlife claims, then those which pay rent fail pretty miserably. at their expectations Take for example classical Spiritualism or Roman Catholicism as useful examples.
Could you expand on how they fail in their expectations? I’m not sure what exactly it is you’re referring to.
Honestly, I would say that the idea of an afterlife is much harder to assail than one of God. Definitions of God that excuse it from providing evidence we don’t observe tend to be incoherent, unsatisfying, or morally reprehensible, whereas it’s not clear that the definitions that excuse an afterlife from providing evidence make it any less satisfying.
Could you expand on how they fail in their expectations? I’m not sure what exactly it is you’re referring to.
To use the example of Spiritualism the entire claim revolved around the ability to talk to the dead and for the dead to easily manifest themselves through mediums. That fails miserably (hence the very long history of mediums being caught engaging in fraudulent behavior often involving cheap magic tricks.) But, just as with God, the solution has been to move to less and less testable hypotheses, so that instead of forming actual entities that speak and interact many modern mediums claim only to be able to get vague feelings and images.
Honestly, I would say that the idea of an afterlife is much harder to assail than one of God.
That seems like a valid point. There’s a difference in degree here. I’m not convinced that it is a difference in kind.
It depends on the nature of the afterlife. In that regard “afterlife” is like “God” in that there are so many different versions of what the term means that making the belief pay rent in any reasonable amount of time can be difficult. But if one looks at most traditional afterlife claims, then those which pay rent fail pretty miserably. at their expectations Take for example classical Spiritualism or Roman Catholicism as useful examples.
Could you expand on how they fail in their expectations? I’m not sure what exactly it is you’re referring to.
Honestly, I would say that the idea of an afterlife is much harder to assail than one of God. Definitions of God that excuse it from providing evidence we don’t observe tend to be incoherent, unsatisfying, or morally reprehensible, whereas it’s not clear that the definitions that excuse an afterlife from providing evidence make it any less satisfying.
To use the example of Spiritualism the entire claim revolved around the ability to talk to the dead and for the dead to easily manifest themselves through mediums. That fails miserably (hence the very long history of mediums being caught engaging in fraudulent behavior often involving cheap magic tricks.) But, just as with God, the solution has been to move to less and less testable hypotheses, so that instead of forming actual entities that speak and interact many modern mediums claim only to be able to get vague feelings and images.
That seems like a valid point. There’s a difference in degree here. I’m not convinced that it is a difference in kind.