Fear of Death

[twobitsmedia]

Fear of death: worst when you’re
a little religious?

June 29, 2005
Special to World Science

When it comes to fear of death, it seems being either a religious zealot or an utter nonbeliever go furthest to soothe the anxiety. Being just a little religious is the least helpful option.

At least, such are the conclusions suggested by a new survey or 155 older people published in the July issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, a scholarly journal.

The study was meant “to investigate the relation between religiousness and fear of death and dying in late adulthood,” wrote the researchers, Paul Wink and colleagues. As it turned out, people “who were moderately religious feared death more than individuals who scored high or low on religiousness.”

Also, at least for some people, fear of death seems to lessens with age, Wink and colleagues found. People in their mid-70s who had experienced more illness and bereavement, perhaps paradoxically, were found to fear death less than those in their late 60s.

People who believed in an afterlife but didn’t follow religious practices were among those with the greatest death fear, the researchers also found. The findings, they added, suggest “firmness and consistency of beliefs and practices, rather than religiousness per se, buffers against death anxiety in old age.”

This echoed similar findings from a study two decades ago, which, however, focused only on fear of death among terminally ill people.

“Beliefs are a less critical determinant of death fear than is the certainty with which these beliefs are held,” wrote the authors of that study.[/b]



I came across this article tonight while doing a study on the subject of death. This re-affirmed for me the importance, even on the physical body, of how important it is for a person with religious convictions to hold them strongly, or they may not be much help at all. Yes or No?

[Hugh]

Death is just a natural occurence ... when Energy slip out the hosting body and go back to the Mainstream Core. Human is an Energy hosting-body with limited physique and duration, while Energy is infinite and indestructible.
.
Religion had only indoctrinated humanity on the dogma of life after death founded in the game of mystic and fantasy just to cater the fears of human, however there has never been a shred of evidence that such exist. The only reason why it continue to flourish because it keep humanity aware and happy in the dying process.

[AClockWorkOrange]

i cannot recall anything before i was born.


history is, based on my own experience, a blankness. Deeper than any blackness, nothing in ways i cannot as a conscious being ever comprehend.

That is good, becuase i have experienced nonexistance before (or not, depending on how you look at it, ha)

I have been "dead" before, so being dead again is not a big deal.

Its kind of exciting, really.

[Openmind]

That is good, becuase i have experienced nonexistance before (or not, depending on how you look at it, ha)

AClockWorkOrange, that sounds interesting. Would you care to share more with us, or is it a personal matter?

i've never a single muslim claiming their loved ones saw allah and or a hindu claiming they saw their religious symbol, whatever it may be.....she was not hallucinating when she sensed the angels were there...this was before the two week period when her body began shutting down.....

Typical christian blindness. I have heard of that happening. People of all different religions see their religion before they die. They sense angels, allah etc. etc. Are they wrong? Do all other religions hallucinate on the death-bed, while christians see the real thing?

[AClockWorkOrange]

it was kind of a play on words, becuase if i was nonexistant, i wsnt realy experiencing anything if i wasnt there.

[Hugh]

That is good, becuase i have experienced nonexistance before (or not, depending on how you look at it, ha)

AClockWorkOrange, that sounds interesting. Would you care to share more with us, or is it a personal matter?

i've never a single muslim claiming their loved ones saw allah and or a hindu claiming they saw their religious symbol, whatever it may be.....she was not hallucinating when she sensed the angels were there...this was before the two week period when her body began shutting down.....

Typical christian blindness. I have heard of that happening. People of all different religions see their religion before they die. They sense angels, allah etc. etc. Are they wrong? Do all other religions hallucinate on the death-bed, while christians see the real thing?

.
Typical religious fantascy that move social feeling ... an icing of the cake... where mankind enjoyed the limbo of death.