I know that death is a natural part of life, but I have to admit that the concept of my own death is a little baffling to me. Among other things, death involves permanent loss of consciousness, and it's just hard for me to wrap my puny human brain around the concept that my awareness will stop one day. I'm an atheist, but I can see how humans developed the concept of an immortal "soul," or "ultimate reality," or what have you. It's just hard for some to believe that one day your body will be like a stone - inanimate, devoid of life, no consciousness - with nothing at all remaining, not even a conscious soul that goes to a magical place somewhere.

That's why the fact that religious people seem more scared of dying than the non-religious is truly bizarre. Now it's no crime to be scared of dying. Many people, both religious and atheist, are scared of it. But if I were dying from a horrible affliction I'd much rather be whisked away to Heaven if I knew for certain it existed. To quote from the New York Times article:

“People think that spiritual patients are more likely to say their lives are in God’s hands — ’Let what happens happen’ — but in fact we know they want more aggressive care,” said Holly G. Prigerson, the study’s senior author and director of the Center for Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“To religious people, life is sacred and sanctified,” Dr. Prigerson said, “and there’s a sense they feel it’s their duty and obligation to stay alive as long as possible.”

kronosposeidon

Im living for ever so im not worried

It's my guess that many religious people want to believe in an afterlife in order to alleviate their fear of death, to enable them to push it to the back of their minds and carry on living. (A perfectly natural thing to want to do.)

When it then comes time for them to die they are suddenly forced to come to terms with the possibility that this might actually be the end and they aren't mentally prepared for it.

Atheists would, by definition, not be expecting an afterlife and so may be more likely to have accepted their end when the time comes.

This is pure speculation and projection on my part of course, I'm not saying this is something I 'know' or 'believe', just a hypothesis.

>> ^kronosposeidon:
Among other things, death involves permanent loss of consciousness, and it's just hard for me to wrap my puny human brain around the concept that my awareness will stop one day.


I find it easier to think that I wasn't conscious or aware prior to my birth (or my conception, depending when awareness begins) and that I'll return to a similar state upon death. Alternatively, I'm also not conscious during the periods of sleep when I'm not dreaming.

I agree it's still too large a concept for me to fully comprehend, but these are like stepping stones on the way there, for me.