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Lumifer comments on An overall schema for the friendly AI problems: self-referential convergence criteria - Less Wrong
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Because the things that people would do if they believed in and acted as though they believe in life after death are profoundly weird, and we don't see any of that around. Can you imagine the same people who say that the dead "went to a better place" being sad that someone has not died, for instance? (Unless they're suffering so much or causing so much suffering that death is preferable even without an afterlife.)
I don't see why they need to be "profoundly weird". Remember, this subthread started with "honoring ancestors". The Chinese culture is probably the most obvious one where honoring ancestors is a big thing. What "profoundly weird" things does it involve?
Given that this is the Chinese we're talking about, expecting one's ancestors to improve investment returns in return for a good sacrifice.
Sorry, I don't know enough about Chinese culture to answer. But I'd guess that either they do have weird beliefs (that I'm not familiar with so I can't name them), or they don't and honoring ancestors is an isolated thing they do as a ritual. (The answer may be different for different people, of course.)
Speaking of "profoundly weird" things, does the veneration of saints in Catholicism qualify? :-)
Insofar as anyone expects saints to perform the function of demigods and intervene causally with miracles on behalf of the person praying, yes, it is "profoundly weird" magical thinking.
Why do you ask a site full of atheists if they think religion is irrational?
"Irrational" and "weird" are quite different adjectives.