Free Create Your Own Religion by Daniele Bolelli

evolution would rob him of any hope of defeating death: “Would they have me believe that I was once a worm and writhed in the dust? Will they take from me my hope of hereafter? I want to go beyond this world to where there is eternal happiness.” 36 Clearly, Stewart was too terrorized by death to let facts interfere with his hopes.
    When grown men so badly need reassurance that after death they will live in eternal happiness with God and all their loved ones, it seems both desperate and pathetic. They use religion the way some infants use pacifiers. Karl Marx used a harsher metaphor when he famously called religion “the opium of the people.” 37 Both metaphors may be accurate, but so what? Pacifiers and opium exist becausethey fulfill a need. If you want someone to quit drugs, you have to offer them an alternative to fulfill that need. Contrary to what Nancy Reagan believed, no one quits drugs because someone tells them drugs are bad. No secular challenge to organized religions will ever succeed unless it offers something to replace what it takes away. Freud correctly argued that religion would never disappear as long as human beings continue to be afraid of death. 38 Most secular movements are doomed to failure because they do nothing to lessen the fear of the unknown. So before we turn to possible alternatives, let's look at how different religions address the fear of death.
From Heaven and Hell to Reincarnation
    You can't hush the terror of death with a few vague, fuzzy words. And so most religions come to the rescue with detailed descriptions of the afterlife, and clear-cut maps to get us there safely—bedrocks of certainty to protect us from death's merciless power.
    In the entire history of the world's religions, two main models have emerged to reassure us of life after death: One tells us that at death our soul survives to be reincarnated into a new body through an eternal cycle of life after life. This is the option favored by Hinduism, some versions of Taoism, several tribal traditions, and—in a modified format—Buddhism. The other says the soul survives death by going on to live for eternity in either heaven or hell. Among the principal proponents of heaven and hell are Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, and some branches of Buddhism and Taoism. For the sake of fairness, I should mention that whereas many traditions hold their followers to very strict dogmas regarding the nature of the afterlife, a few exceptions (particularly branches of Judaism, Taoism,Buddhism, and various tribal traditions) allow followers to entertain multiple possibilities. These, however, are not the religions we are focusing on right now, so my moment of fairness is over.
    Although they may differ in form, the concepts of reincarnation and heaven and hell fulfill similar functions. Both reassure us that there is life after death. Both argue that—despite massive evidence indicating otherwise—the universe is governed by a moral order. Both console those who suffer in this life with the prospect of finding fortune in the next.
    No religion has emphasized the idea of reincarnation as much as Hinduism. In the Hindu version, the individual soul (the Atman) is incarnated into a physical body about to be born. At the death of this particular body, the soul abandons the flesh to jump into a new body about to be born. In a perfect chain of cause and effect, the next incarnation is determined by the soul's karma—the force generated by the sum of all choices, intentions, and actions made in the previous lives. Good karma leads to a favorable reincarnation, while bad karma leads to being reborn as a lower form of life. The soul's options for reincarnation are not limited to human beings. Animals are also fair game since, according to Hinduism, they also possess souls—albeit ones which are inferior to human beings'.
    On the surface, the whole notion of karma attracts me. It almost has a scientific ring to it, a spiritual version of the