You're right to dismiss the stupid fairytales about the afterlife. We only have one chance of living and it's this one. Life isn't a rehearsal for the after-death.

We are just members of the primate family and as such we are just other animals akin to the dinosaurs. If we are all due another life after we die then the place will be full of T-Rex and his associates PLUS all those animals we slaughtered for our table. Though it would make that other life very entertaining.