Death and birth are defining moments in each passage, from life’s replication to how it ends. Many accounts of death arise because of the finality it represents to some and to others, passage to a better state. Neither the belief in life beyond death nor the insistence that, as animals, we will find our course the same as other creatures, regardless of beliefs in what we do or do not do, do not convince me. Best would be to see beliefs as a celebration of what we do not know. There would be nothing to contend over then.