Does religion create more anxiety over death? (salvation, soul, hell)

[Chango]

...by trying to convince people they are in imminent danger of going to the most terrible realm possible of horror, suffering and doom if they don't do well enough in life?

The way I see it, there are basically two possiblities after life. Either you cease to exist or you go to a new kind of existence. It sounds exciting to go to a new existence, and if you simply cease to exist, you feel nothing. No pain, no regret, nothing. Why is either so scary? I don't get it.

But if religion manufactures a fear of death, they make people easily manipulable in this life. That is the only "good" reason to have "hell". But does creating fear and anxiety over death make life harder than it has to be? Or, is fear of death a natural part of our psyche (i.e. survival instinct) and merely projected through fears of hell?

[gabfest]

Originally Posted by Chango

...by trying to convince people they are in imminent danger of going to the most terrible realm possible of horror, suffering and doom if they don't do well enough in life?

The way I see it, there are basically two possiblities after life. Either you cease to exist or you go to a new kind of existence. It sounds exciting to go to a new existence, and if you simply cease to exist, you feel nothing. No pain, no regret, nothing. Why is that so scary?

But if religion manufactures a fear of death, they make people easily manipulable in this life. That is the only "good" reason to have "hell".

preach on brother!

[Terryj]

The one thing that humanity can not control is death, we can prolong life to a point but in the end death wins out. So religion offers you a way of controlling death, for a price.

[eddie gein]

I've never understood why people who would NEVER, under any circumstance practice bronze age medicine in order to stay alive seem to think these bronze agers actually figured out what happens to us after we are dead.

[rifleman]

Excellent new thread, chango m-boy! Thanks!

The way I see it, having the possibility of !!HELL!! hanging over your head would be like waiting your whole life for that return call from the cancer specialist doc, the one he promised he'd make "...as soon as the tests tell us what we're looking for! You'll be the first to know, trust me!"

But day after week after month after year after agonizing decade, that call won't ever come in, and the individual who actually believes in this unique form of incurable cancer (i.e. :HELL!!) is left holding the psychological bag, so to speak, to suffer under the unending lifelong pressure of not truly knowing his fate.

Oh, he takes all his vitamin and pro-biotic supplements to ward it off (as in: prayer and tithing, and unrelenting attacks on those damned atheists who simply tell it like it is...), but none of it really works, else why are the vast majority of Christians and Muslims all so terrified at the idea of death? Or of Hell?

If they believe in Hell, then by association they also believe in the possibility of Salvation, and you and I and our pesky ilk are truly the Antichrists in their lives.

So look out, my friend!

[achickenchaser]

All I know is if I thought there really were a hell, I'd probably be a little uneasy about death. Luckily we all know better than that, now don't we

One intresting thing about hell is that nobody who believes in it thinks they're going. It's always others who're destined for it.

[TRANSPONDER]

Yes, it is a good thread, rather suprisingly. You'd expect the theists to be comfortable and secure in a guaranteed retirement mansion for the long -time employees while atheists were rushing around in terror at the thought of the impending Ayatollah (scowling eyebrows and all) leaning over him and growling 'why didn't you believe in me, worm?'

That is the image the believers like to present, but on the 'fear of death' threads the believers seem to be the ones terrified of death and the goddless Moderator cut: edit don't seem to understand what the fuss is about.

[catman]

I don't think many of the believers trust the 'guarantee' that much, having unavoidably sinned in their hearts (if not in their actions) all their lives.

[Thomas R.]

There is a sadness to partings. When I die there will be people who love me that will miss me. It's sad for them. And there are things to learn, or penances to do, in this life that matter. Although strangely enough when I did almost die I briefly thought I was dead and in Purgatory, which I was kind of okay with in a way. Still the experience made me go more against that and appreciate more the value of this life even though there is another.

And anyway "religion" is a word that can describe many things. There are religions that believe in reincarnation, Universal Salvation, or even that we have more than one soul. I think some religion taught you have many parts which go different places when you die. And I'm answering this, rather than finishing another post to A, as this allows for a shorter answer.

[TRANSPONDER]

I think the post is about more than partings. In a way that is a bit of Pulpit PR as it is too easy. There are a lot of feelings one has at the death of a friend or family member. Relief that an illness which robbed them of their entire personality and dignity is at an end, pride in all they accomplished or sadness that they failed to accomplish it and perhaps a resolve to finish it for them. Well, I'll leave the other mixed feelings open to others.

No, the real point of the thread is about anxiety at the though of death and, I think I can say with confidence, one's own death. That is why I mentioned that atheists seem often to be more matter of fact about it.

I don't know why but surely it must be an acceptance that such things are natural and also the feeling, perhaps, that the individuality - feeling is nothing that really can expect to be perpetuated. In a way it is more humility than the cage- battling "No! All that I am can't end at death. There must be a soul or something, to carry on after the body is dead."

That at least seems to be more the favoured popular revision of theology than the graves opening and the resurrected bodies climbing out. And Religion has tacitly gone along with the popular concensus.