The most troubling effect about extolling an after life, IMO, is that it reduces the necessary importance of enjoying and living the only real life we can all tangibly agree exists (minus people enthralled with quantum mechanics).
This was a tool used to convince peasants that their lives of toil and servitude were worth it. The fact that it's still being employed when we live in an age of unrivaled abundance to encourage general penance and asceticism among the masses while the privileged few enjoy is disgusting.
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