I don't think there's a religious afterlife but from a scientific elemental point of view, when something living dies it decomposes or is eaten, something consumes it bacteria, fungi animals etc, which they then die themselves eventually and something else consumes it again.
Living forms like humans also consume non-living things, such as vitamins and minerals for nutrients . Our body's use these nutrients to sustain live, and when we die something else consumes us as already mentioned. This and is a ever repeating cycle
This elemental view, based on a never ending cycle of consumption of elements both living and non living is much like a iceberg, that completely melts and refreezes but due to nature of movement the elemental structure of it is never the completely same.