Why do human beings have a need to cope with death? The vast majority of humans that have ever lived have believed in some sort of continuation of life after death. For many, even envisioning "nothing" is a considerable strain on their imagination. Even among supposedly nonreligious people, there is commonly hope for a scientific salvation (biological immortality) or nonsensical ideas of consciousness "jumping" to other places and times (quantum immortality, cyclic models of the universe), all to avoid the idea that yes, you're going to die, and yes, there's nothing after death.

We have no problem believing that a squished bug is simply gone. We don't need complex belief contortions to allow it's little bug consciousness to be alive out there somewhere. Why are we so ready to deny the reality of death?