Cowards love their never-ending afterlife fantasy. The stupid, it burns.

"It is easy to see why religion quickly spread through culture once it emerged. When humans gained the cognitive capacity to reason and plan for the future, they became aware of their own mortality. The realization that oneself and all one’s loved ones will someday die is naturally terrifying, and this existential fear perfectly set the stage for anxiety-reducing ideas, like ones that offer a never-ending afterlife. But religions are complex ideas, and the psychological effects they have on minds go beyond just relieving anxiety."

The whole thing is at How Religious Fundamentalism Hijacks the Brain. Fundamentalist ideologies act like mental parasites.