"Thanatology seems to be the observation of death from the perspective of the living."

Look I don't wish to be rude, but doesn't that statement belong in the Awards of the Bleeding Obvious?

The whole problem with the doctrine that promises life after death is that there has only been one case of life after death with some degree of plausibility in the history of human knowledge, and, if you believe that one example is true and proves something, you believe the person who did it is a god, or perhaps even *the* god. Which is really cheating isn't it?