To me, the afterlife appears to be a human belief of which various version find their way into the various human superstitions. There is no reason to believe that there exists anything in our lives that continues after death. Concepts of "soul," etc. are speculations that we apply to ourselves in a very selfish manner since humans have difficulty coming to terms with death and non-existence.
Probably from the earliest ancestor that wondered where his father, mother, brother went when dead -and why the body is now cold instead of warm as when sleeping, we've conjured beliefs of other places that the dead go to. This is evident in the many cultures of the world: the Egyptian believed in various forms of immortality; the Zuni of the American West believe that the dead live in the West (interestingly enough, the West was also a place of the dead for the Egyptians -both probably noted that this is where the Sun goes at night) with the ancestors; other cultures believe in re-incarnation such as Hindu cults. Christian and Islamic religions believe in heaven or some sort of eternal life, depending on which cult is examined.
But for the non-believer, this life is all that matters. Its all there is. For the humanist non-believer, this is all the more reason to live life to its fullest -not the "eat, drink and be merry" attitude that might come to mind for some, but, rather, focusing on providing some lasting benefit for society as a whole. Enjoying the many pleasures that this life holds, be it the natural world (hiking, boating, stargazing), literature, or art. And helping our fellow man where necessary: advocating solutions to poverty, war, human rights abuses, environmental issues, etc.
Humanist non-believers do this not to earn a place of status in some afterlife that probably doesn't exist, but because it is the right thing to do. Because our species' future depends upon what we choose to do now.
I do not believe in any afterlife. I think that when you are dead, that's all there is. If any part of me goes on it'll be the words I've written, the memory of the deeds I've done, or the organic molecules my body is comprised of will feed a wolf that will nurture its pups and a tree that will give water and oxygen back to the world in the processes of transpiration and photosynthesis.
The religious and spiritual new-agers are content to rest on the fact that since science hasn't discovered all there is to know about human consciousness and the so-called mind, that this means there is something that can go on past an individual's life. Perhaps there is. There just isn't any reason to believe it to be true other than fear and hope. The mind and consciousness, so far, appears to be electro-chemical and decidedly not mystical, contrary to the postmodernist and new age mumbo jumbo others will undoubtedly refute me with.
