The traditional Western concept of the afterlife is of translucent souls floating up from inactive bodies to play the harp in a magical cloud land. That goes back to Plato, who initially set up the whole mind-body dualism deal, the theory that the soul is distinct from the body.

Great idea, beautiful idea, lots of justification, but the simple fact is that it doesn't stand up to science. We have yet to discover energy fields from the Ethereal Dimension creating thought in the human cortex.

Small children are convinced (quite reasonably), that since their brain is who they are, God is only interested in some abstract, non-personal integer called a "soul", and they themselves can be separated from said abstraction without suffering any ill effects besides the inability to fog up windows on a cold day.