Well taking the religious dimension out of it, would it not make sense for me, in considering approaches to a problem, to take advice from any credible source, living or dead? For example, just pulling a random example out of thin air, wouldn't long-dead Bertrand Russell give better advice than most living people most people know? True, it wouldn't be as customized and detailed as you could get from that rare empathetic, caring, AND wise friend. But ... considering the average quality of most people I've encountered in over six decades of living, I don't discount advice from dead people at all.

So the problem with religious prophets isn't that they're dead, it's just that they are lionized for not thinking critically. People do that to both the living and the dead. How do you think that televangelists get anywhere in life?

The religious don’t appear to appreciate chaos. They seek simple answers to complex questions. Cherry picking history for distorted ‘answers’ while listening to endless interpretations of their ‘book of choice’ to justify both action and inaction.

While ignoring research on deep history, both biological, geological, or cosmic, the compilation of new information continues to conflict with their mythical desires…

With the advent of the world wide web future generations will continue to seek and utilize the latest research and observations over the muddled interpretations of any distorted book. It’s happening, perhaps faster than it appears.

There is a certain amount of good advice to be gleaned from the wisdom of individuals who have lived from cradle, to old age, to the grave. Simply because they have lived a long and full life and have experienced more, their words merit at least some consideration.

That's not to say the advice of those long in their graves should be the end all and be all when facing a certain problem or challenge. Times and circumstances change. The advice of ones contemporaries is equally as crucial.

Because people do things they've done before, and what their peers do, without questioning it.

Always bothers me when people say respect the dead why ? They are dead and can do feck all to help me in any way !