Most Westerners believe they only leave one corpse.

While some imagine an "afterlife" or a "reincarnation" in conformity
with this or that religious tradition, others believe consciousness
just ends--just goes out like a light.

Those who believe that life just goes out like a light probably fear
death more than anything else. If they're suicidal, they see death as
a form of escape--an escape from a painful somethingness into
nothingness.

But even if someone believes in an afterlife or a reincarnation, he
still usually fears death quite a bit, simply because of the huge
change he thinks it involves.

Historically, once death was regarded as either a huge change or an
ending, the medical field flourished (i.e., the study of how to keep
from leaving a corpse through disease or injury), the pursuit of
happiness became central and, political science became the most
important "philosophical" movement (i.e., the study of how a society
can be formed that brings the greatest happiness to the greatest
number and leaves the least amount of corpses).

(Quick note: the pursuit of happiness became central because having
only "one life to live" made it a veritable crime to waste any
smidgen of it wallowing in displeasure.)
And imagine the fear! Well, you don't have to imagine it. You,
reader, feel this fear. The fear of death.

It is quite absurd, since there is no way to notice when you die
aside from the occasional brush. And those who preach caution in the
name of a long life are even more absurd when viewed from the
perspective I've put forth here. As I hope you all can see--though I
doubt you believe me--you have all died countless times. And each
time, the "afterlife" or the "reincarnation" was nothing more than
your life continuing in a parallel universe.

This idea--stumbled upon by Quantum Physics--is the hidden (and I
suspect forgotten) underpinning of all religions in their original
forms.

It is what Christ was trying to teach (or remind those who forgot)
but could only find opaque allegories to convey.

Every religion in its original form arose to show you the importance
of nothing but the present moment.

Every religion in its original form arose to show you that you live
on after death or, as some say, after countless deaths. The idea was
to keep you from worrying about your safety; to keep you from
devaluing the present by believing (erroneosly) that an inevitable
end will come. That is, to keep you in life now by realizing its
infinite quality. Why? Well, there is one reason: humanity functions
much better that way. But there is another more important reason:
BECAUSE IT'S TRUE!!!.

(more to come)