In one of her letters, Virginia Woolf quotes a charwoman thusly:

'Ah well Mrs Woolf, just this life, then the next, then we can all have a nice rest.'

In years gone by, and in 'primitive' societies today, it's easy to 'sell' the concept of an afterlife, because 'real' life was/is nasty, brutish and short, and freedom from pain and suffering would be enough of a bonus to make Heaven worth aiming for.  In sophisticated societies, as life is much more bearable, this approach becomes problematic; what would Heaven be like that would make it so much better than life on Earth?  Praising God all day long would soon pall, surely?