A number of pagan religions held that the afterlife was dismal, anhedonic, not worth discussing, or unknown. These religions are now all extinct. Before I go through some of these pagan religions (and I mean nothing derogatory by that term), a note. Paganism, more than nearly any surviving religion, was not organized on the basis of doctrine. This was perhaps especially true of doctrine about the afterlife. Thus I will focus on what appears, on the basis of our sources, to have been dominant views of the afterlife in these cultures.
This is a great historical thread that you've consolidated. I think I would agree with your speculative thesis at the end. The trend seems to dovetail with the trends in Pinker's Why Violence Has Declined. Death, and the concept of a brutal afterlife, is a violent thought.
This is a great historical thread that you've consolidated. I think I would agree with your speculative thesis at the end. The trend seems to dovetail with the trends in Pinker's Why Violence Has Declined. Death, and the concept of a brutal afterlife, is a violent thought.
1. Can American Religion be posturing rather than believing
2. Can communism or the capitalist counterparts be the new religions of China, Russia, and Czechia?