Life After Death( Afterlife ): Buddhism Christianity and Politics

I wonder, when you talk about afterlife ( life after death ) Buddhism and Christianity have something in common. I know almost all the Christians / catholics don't believe in afterlife, but there are evidences in the bible to support afterlife. If you are a christian, just refer to terms 'gigul' or 'ibur' in new testament. ( Celtic christians believed in gigul ). But why this concept suppressed in Christianity?.

The main reason for that as I can see is the past politics. The later Roman emperors, both Western and Byzantine, were tyrants who owned their subjects body and soul. Anyone who opposed them was sentenced to a slow and painful death. This kingdom was extrapolated into the eternal spiritual realm by theologians, who imposed the blackmail of the doctrine of ever-lasting hell and its torments for defiance of authority.

These versus are from Judaism....

Matthew 16:15-16 When Yahshauah came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he
asked his Talmidim, "Who do people say the Son of Man (Ben Adam) is?" They
replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Eliyah; and still others,
Yemeryahu or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do
you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Mashiach, the Son of the
living Elohim (Adam Kadmon)."

Woe be unto you, ungodly men, which have forsaken the law of the most high
YHWH: for if you increase it shall be to your destruction. And if you be born, you
shall be born to a curse… Ecclesiasticus 41:8-9, edition Apocrypha

( published in All About Buddhism blog )

All About Buddhism: Life After Death

We buddhists believe a living being ( layman ) is connected to a chain of lives. When we pass away from one life, we just stick to another life. There may or may not be a transition period which is bit controversial, but for a person who hasn't attain nirvana ( "Nibbana" -The ultimate goal in buddhism ) will have new life after the current one. In the new life , we can be a human, an animal or maybe a single celled being like amiba. The activities we perform in our current life and in past lives plays the major role in success of the new life after death. According to buddhism, it is not god's wish to make someone poor and some other person wish, it is our past life actions which determine the future life. Therefore Buddhists are not dependent upon a "highly powered, uncontrollable source".

Are we going our journey with a single "atman" like in Hindu? Of course not. The next life is like a mirror image of yours. If the mirror image is you , then there should be a duplicate of you in the world which is not true, but you can't argue that the mirror image doesn't represent you. Think about it. In the next life, you are not the same person as you are now, again you are not a different person into some extent. Simply, if we do good things, we gather good karma and you have the highest possibility to have a better life after death. So, why should we think of breaking the chain?. Lets take an example. Suppose you are the richest person in the world. Do you think that you would be free from all the problems in the world. No. You might have the risk of loosing your property. You maybe afraid that someone would break your record. That is life, we don't satisfy ourselves. We make our own goals and try to achieve and suffer. We need to get rid of continuous suffering.

This is just an overview of the life after death. There are many aspects in detail, which I would like to publish. Just let me know your thoughts

(published in All About Buddhism blog )