As I read it, he believed that we must have an afterlife (the soul survives death) because otherwise, all of the knowledge we accumulated in our lifetime would

As I read it, he believed that we must have an afterlife (the soul survives death) because otherwise, all of the knowledge we accumulated in our lifetime would be lost and that would be a waste and irrational. I don't agree. Knowledge is passed down through generations; it doesn't need to be preserved in a single human. Even stars are born and die, so it seems much more reasonable to me that a system has evolved where knowledge is passed through generations instead of the human soul surviving death to preserve knowledge (an afterlife).