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or supports. This makes belief in the soul the key to control, used by parents over their children, by clerics over their congregations, by men over women, and by slaveholders over their slaves.

It's those with authority who choose which biblical and koranic verses "count," and which don't. For example, gay is bad, and wearing mixed fabrics isn't bad, although the Bible says they're both reprehensible. Once, those in control used the bible's support of slavery to justify race-based slavery in America; now, due to the freedom inherent in secular society, this has fallen out of favor, so they don't use it anymore. Yet, the bible itself has not changed.

Belief in rewards and punishments after death does not lead people to do good. Rather, it leads them to follow the rules of a leader. These rules are just as likely to be immoral as they are to be moral.

To be truly moral, each individual must act based on experiential evidence and the inborn sense of empathy and compassion. Acting on fear or anticipation does neither of these things, and leads only to self-preservation and self-reward.

Belief in the soul, and what rewards and punishments one receives after death, is what allows some people to control other people. The controlled think they'll be given succulent women and fruit after death, or that they'll get to party with Jesus.

In exchange for this, they give their lives to the cause of their religion, and thus, that religion's leaders. Some give their lives by blowing themselves up in crowded bus stations; others give their lives by spending them in servitude to an imaginary friend, thus missing out on life's great questions, answers, and experiences.

Belief in reward after death is an important part of the system of religion. The god-centric religions of the west would fall apart without this belief, but it's not a valid belief. Rather, it's a means of control which can have long-term negative consequenses for human beings - like the unnecessary delpetion of resources, the tendency to miss out on the real and important philosophical realities of living a finite life, and even the deaths of large groups of people.

Learn more about this author, Currie Jean.
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