A common criticism of religious belief dismisses it as mere wish-fulfillment fantasy, driven by human fear of death. But this explanation seems, at best, entirely inadequate.
In ancient Greek paganism, for instance, the souls of the dead continued to exist. But they were shorn of earthly status and position, incapable either of progressing or exerting influence, in a shadowy and essentially meaningless underworld known as “Hades.” In the 11th chapter of Homer’s “Odyssey,” Odysseus must make a drink offering of blood to Teiresias in order to speak with that dead prophet, who describes Hades as “a region where is no joy.”
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