Ian

In the 2013 documentary The Unbelievers author Ian McEwan observes that believers weep as the caskets of their loved ones are lowered into the ground. And yet they don't do so when they bid them bon voyage at the wharf or airport as they embark on their vacation. If death is merely a boat ride (courtesy of Charon Tours perhaps) to our common destination then there shouldn't be any sobbing at all. Thus, even those who subscribe to an afterlife, it seems, understand that the hereafter is merely fiction, a palliative to ease the heartache of eventual annihilation of those we hold dear.