How do you know it's false hope? :-) Seriously, I'm not trying to belittle your worldview here, but you, as an agnostic, don't know for a fact that there's nothing after this life, any more than I, as a Quaker, know that there is an afterlife. It's probable that one of us is wrong, but who knows? There might be a third possibility neither of us has considered. And as for the Rainbow Bridge thing -- what's the big deal? People all grieve in different ways, and if it makes someone feel better to believe in an eventual reunion with his or her pets, well... How is that a problem?

Just my random $0.02. :-)

--Tammy