The amount of knowledge humanity has accumulated over its existence is colossal. While practical information is more or less straight forward to understand and deal with, and we use this data every day without doing much thinking, it makes us approach more philosophical issues the same way, literally. The mental habit of taking things at the face value is one of the reasons why rulers, church leaders, politicians, and mass media are so successful at double-dealing the general population. Universally, we are inclined to believe what we are told because this requires the least brain capacity to accept and process the incoming information. Like a computer or cell phone operating in power saving mode, where while generally functioning, the device does not perform anywhere close to its full potential, but rather attempts to save energy for some other purpose. It is debatable what that "other purpose" is for our brains. It needs to control events happening inside of our body, such as homeostasis, as well as deal with things taking place outside of it, such as needing to cross the street. It is quite possible that our mental energy is being saved to deal with the emergent unexpectedness of life. In any case, we often take incoming information factually even when it requires a bit more processing to properly comprehend.
Let's take a look at the afterlife, conveyed by most of the known religions. What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear this term? The current body dies and goes into the ground and the soul moves on. Depending on the teaching, the soul either waits for judgement, moves to a new human body, moves to a non-human body or object, haunts currently living people for fun or roams the universe. When no longer in a body, the soul maintains certain properties of the person left behind. In one form or another, it retains the experiences and behavioral qualities of the individual it floated away from. Very often it is punished or praised for the things done in the latest body.
Is that what happens or do we take the term "afterlife" very literally? What about our children? Aren't they our afterlife coexisting along with us? Don’t we pass on the information we know to them? Don't they look and behave somewhat like us? If we use drugs and hurt other people won't our children suffer from birth defects and be a target of vengeance from the people we caused pain to? If we did not do anything to improve our lives won't our children suffer in theirs? Also, if during our lifetime we create something others will use after we are gone; can't that be seen as some form of afterlife as well?
The reason why most of us think of our souls when an “afterlife” is mentioned is due to the fact that we were taught to do so by a religious establishment or mass media (which nowadays is probably the strongest force in our society). The soul story is easier to digest by our brain because it engages our self-protection instincts, egoism, deals with our own persona, and allows us to project our own mortal image onto an immortal entity. This concept is the version preferred by society leaders because it enables us to be easily swayed into any direction needed to achieve their objectives. Why? Because it offers easy ways of "saving" ourselves without thinking about the challenges of spending a lifetime making the lives of our children better or bringing positive contributions to society.
Now, all that does not mean that we do not have souls. We probably do; however, most likely, they are something different from what we imagine them to be. Before we discuss our souls any further, let's take a look at the sample situation that would allow us to see things from a slightly different perspective.