Afterlife

Like I've said in one post that I've been reading thisbook called 'Atomised' by a french author...
this book raised a few interesting notions...
one notion raised is about religion...
both brothers in the story practically do not believe in any religion...but there's one sentence that caught my attention...
"as soon as people stop believing in life after death,religion is impossible"
what do you think ?
if I take the stand of this sentence then I can safely say that the only purpose man follows a religion is only because of the reward of the next world....
We know that most if not all people do anything for something...
there must be some reward for anything we do...we crave for gifts or praise or privileges...those stuffs...
of course there's some that this statement doesn't apply but they are a rare few and I'm not really sure about their sanity...
ha..ha..
but let's go back to the sentence...
religion exists solely because people believe in life after death...because people fear the punishment that they might get...
or because people pursue the reward that they might get if they do 'good'...
I don't know...there are many reasons...
It's just instigate a thought in me that religion is useless...because it serves no purpose...
if that sentence is true...religion is self-defeating for most...
think about it...religion taught people to do good without considering the reward (at least the religions that I know)...
but people do good because they want to have the reward or avoid punishment in the next world...
so the good deed that people do in this world is to get something in the next world...
and thus it is contradictory to the teaching of the religion that, once more, people should do good without thinking of the reward...
a paradox...
but I must submit to the fact that there are people who do good because they want to do good and not because of any reward...in this world...or in the next...if there's any...
So ? do you agree to that sentence ? interesting sentence right ?
ha..ha..