Why do people consider no afterlife "more logical"?

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I'm not religious, but I'm confused why many people who don't believe in an afterlife cite logic as the reason for their belief.

To me some form of existence after death seems just as likely as no form of existence after death. We don't have any data about what people experience after they die. The universe is huge and complicated, and we know very very little about it.

I know that all evidence shows us that human thought requires a brain, so if the brain dies with the rest of the body then logically consciousness as we know it also ends when we die. But I see no reason why there couldn't exist other forms of consciousness, or "life", that exists independently of the physical brain. Maybe there is some other element, similar to what people call the soul, that continues or emerges after death.

(That said, I do understand why people say that it's logically unlikely for any particular afterlife to exist. What are the odds that, for example, the Christian heaven as described by humans in the Bible is what people will experience after they die? Very unlikely- it's very specific, and with no evidence. I'm just arguing that the idea of some form of continued existence after death is just as likely as the alternative, with what we know right now)

If consciousness is a result of our brain's normal function, once normal function ceases, so does consciousness.

An afterlife complicates things by requiring a way for consciousness to exist separate from brain function. It's a needless complication.

I don't believe in things which cannot be proven.

Evidence points the mind being something that exists within and because the brain. That's why brain injuries cause noticeable changes to mind and personality.

Even the most religious person would agree that when the body dies, the brain dies. The dualist argument is that the mind is the product of the soul, not the brain and that as the soul exists outside of the body, it is not killed when the body dies.

If mind came from soul not brain, there would be no changes to the mind after brain injury. But there is so it doesn't. Without something that exists outside the body, there is nothing left of you to go on. Your whole being in contained within your body and when it dies, you die.

You don't experience an afterlife because because after you've died there is no you to experience it.

I think it depends on both what data they train their minds with and additionally what kinds of ideas they're willing to entertain to begin with. I also get the sense that religion and metaphysical positions in general are extremely similar to politics in how much people can't stand people who aren't like them but it's pitched up to mythic levels.

I don't believe in an Abrahamic God whose pining over your every move but - I'd consider Neoplatonism as well as some Advaitic / experiential interpretations of an Atman, a 'Source', something like the god of Spinoza, Teilhard de Chardin, or Alfred North Whitehead's Process Philosophy, a lot of that makes sense to me and seems to fit the patterns of evidence better than anything else for what I've read, watched, listened to, etc.. I also feel like I've tried to give all sides of the arguments their due ('No you haven't - otherwise you'd agree with me!' ) and - it's a really f'ing violent and sadistic world at ground level, I'm thoroughly compassionate to the types of atheists who'd take that alone and not even have curiosity as to whether there's evidence for continued consciousness because they think of it in terms of the Christian structure, they reject the Christian structure, and there's a sense that if modern technology is doing all of this work and religion and philosophy 'never did nuthin', you could feel that way for a while until you take a look at how our culture is getting (short version - it's a big Moloch trap in the Slate Star Codex context, it's that thing some native Americans call 'Wetiko', where zero-sum games and destruction of trust run a group into insanity and out of existence).

Humans evolved from inanimate chemicals.

Do those chemicals have an afterlife? What about the simplest forms of life, that could barely be called cells? Single-celled prokaryotes? Protists? Fungi, plants, sponges?

When people suffer serious brain damage (either through injury or disease), their personality can change and they can lose memories. This suggests that your personality and memories are stored in the brain, and that the death of the brain will cause those things to be lost.

Is it possible to definitively rule out that there is some undetectable "spark of life" that allows humans to survive brain death and retain some sense of identity? No. But practically, as far as we can tell, people cease to exist when they die.

It was never going to be testable, was it?

If I was God I’d move in mysterious ways and keep everyone guessing, otherwise there’d be no value in faith.

If you believe in an afterlife you’re never going to find out you’re wrong after you die.

I won't believe in afterlife until I actually see a ghost myself for real. I want to see a ghost but the best places to see ghosts are places you aren't allowed to go, like abandoned buildings. Yes, you're more likely to encounter paranormal activity in abandoned buildings than graveyards. In graveyards the dead are resting in peace.

If there is an afterlife, then the afterlife place must be overcrowded. There are more than 8 billion people still alive. How many billions have died? At what point would humans have evolved an afterlife? Neanderthals? Just since Cro-Magnon?

Ancient Greeks had the idea that the soul was immortal--that it had always existed, that it somehow got assigned to a body, and goes to Hades after death.

Hindus and Buddhists also have the idea of an immortal soul, that continuously enters new bodies through reincarnation, although the Buddhist goal is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth.

Jews, I think, have the idea that the soul enters the body when the newborn first breathes.

I think that Muslims have the idea that the soul enters the fetus a few months after conception.

If you ask a Christian whether the soul existed prior to conception, the answer will be "it doesn't matter. All that counts is that you believe in Jesus so that your soul can gain entry into Heaven."