The Bible, properly understood, does not contradict itself. When the surrounding context of a given set of verses is taken into account, the correct meaning and usage of those verses can readily be established. But when a man isolates verses (called "proof-texting") or employs inferior methods to connect scripture to scripture, then the result is erroneous doctrine and practice.
It has been the Christian position for 2000 years that saved people (born again; those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal savior) go to heaven when they die, and that lost people go to hell (Hades) when they die. To say that people die and are thereby extinguished like a candle flame is simply wrong.
The worship of spirits , especially "spiritis of the dead," has been around since the time of Cush and Nimrod, when these two began the first major apostate religion after the flood. Nimrod at this time was in control of most of the known world then - his religion was their religion - and he also began to build the tower of Babel. At this time God mixed up the single human language. Different people, with the same language, left from the region of the Tower, and they took their false sun/spirit/ancestor worship with them. This is what lead to all of the false religions we have today in the "pagan" parts of the world. Monothesism and the worship of the one and only Greator, at this time, in the world was only carried on by a few human tribes, and from these tribes we get Abram. Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation, which during it's OT Biblical history many times does battle with people who practice the sun/spirit/ancestor worship - Look what happen to King Saul when he tried to talk to the dead - and it was into this Jewish nation, the people that came from the monotheistic tribe of Abraham, that the Son of God was born, lived, preached, taught, loved, died, and ROSE AGAIN, providing salvation for man! Soon after the Lord's ressurection, the new testament book of Acts takes you through the initial steps of the begining of the Christian church, and it was during this time that the apostles of Christ began to go and preach the Gospel unto the world. So, the point is, that the Gospel was preached to the pagan peoples, after the ressurection of God, and these are the same pegan peoples who believed in the sun/spirit/ancestor worship. After conversion, they held onto their pagan beliefs in "eternal souls," misunderstanding scripture. This was this same apostate belief that also made it in the Roman Catholic Chrch, and has been carried on by the RCC ever since. Unforunately, the protestants held onto this one as well. However, careful study of the word will show no contradictions, especially in regards to the Biblical and Historical evidence.