Jim Boy said:
That is really such a bad analogy. As a concept, electricty did not exist, it wasn't simply a case of believing or not. Science has got it wrong plenty of times and there is still huge amounts of uncertainty around. For example now there is still uncertainty and dispute over whther certain types of particles exist in the quantum world.
Perhaps a better analogy would be the flat-earth concept of the universe stemming from a lack of understanding of gravity?
Something that was believed as just plain common sense, that the earth had to be flat or people would fall off...
Jim Boy said:
But whether a scientist actually believes something or not, at the very least they all agree that there is some evidence that could be interpreted, rightly or wrongly, that a particular theory holds true.
But with the afterlife, there is nothing, not a jot of evidence to even suggest that such a thing as afterlife might be possible. The only thing that supports it is religion, an irrepressible refusal to come to to grips with the fact that when life stops and you draw your last breath, that's it.
There is an enormous amount of anecdotal evidence relating to near death experiences- the bright light/tunnel/feeling warm and safe scenario is universal enough to appear not concocted.
Now of course that could be hallucinations caused by synapses firing at random under the obvious stress of.. well.. carking it, with the rest filled in by confabulation and whatnot, but I think it at least merits an open mind.
The reality is that whilst there is not a jot of hard evidence to support an after life, there is not a jot of evidence to support the idea that death is the end of all existence either- self awareness doesn't appear to begin at birth- for most people it seems to be around the age of 2 or 3, so who's to say that self awareness is definitely tied to having a functional brain supplied with oxygen?
Without getting mystical or new-agey about it, the reality is that there is plenty about human existence that science doesn't understand yet. I have no idea whether there is any afterlife and if so what form it takes, but I think the only sensible approach is agnosticism- if you're trying to say with absolute certainty that death is the end of all existence, then that is really as much as a statement of faith as believing in an afterlife is- neither can be conclusively proven by evidence.