Benefits of Heaven and Hell

There are some practical benefits for people to behave well both individually and as a society. Who wants to share life with someone trying to kill or exploit you? If folks are "good" we can get along, if not, evil runs the show and everyone is out for his or her self.

And leaders--familial, tribal, community, national, religious etc.--find threats of force, death, and hell useful for managing people's behavior. Direct violence loses some of its effectiveness the further people get away from it, but if the threat is supernatural we have the basis for influence flexible enough for a civilization. Especially, if we have a priesthood and religious practices to foster unity.

So, social cohesion and the restraint of evil are utilitarian (material) benefits of belief in heaven and hell. But if an after-life judgement is entirely a human creation then compliance is irrational because. We would have the "benefit" of better relations, but it would all be based on a fabrication. If we get real with our atheism then we remove any lasting benefit to being "good." Whether we are good or evil makes no real difference. Psychopaths live that way and if a significant number of people embraced such a material mindset we would have the culture of a prison without the guards.

There might be another reason that people in all cultures from the earliest of times have believed in God and a day of judgement for deeds done in the flesh besides the utilitarian benefits. We might believe it because it's true.