Why are people of faith afraid of death?

[Kilgore Trout]

Is it that they are not quite sure of their faith for that do they not know what their faith tells them?

It's because most people are sane enough to recognize that wishful imaginings, no matter how forcefully or often stated, are pretty flimsy when faced with expectations born of an awareness of the harsh truths of experienced reality.

 

[Mike The Atheist]

Is it that they are not quite sure of their faith for that do they not know what their faith tells them?

What is death? It's the unwilling (most of the time anyways) abandonment of all that one knows; I have not met one person that has died and came back to tell me what the afterlife is like, and even if I somehow did, there is no way that they could prove it. Taking all of this into consideration, unless someone is clothed in such a thick layer of delusion in whichever faith they believe in, there is still that little thought in their mind that reminds them that what happens after death (or what DOESN'T) stays after death, and that they will never be sure if their belief of the afterlife is true or not. Good luck to them, maybe their beliefs will help to partially comfort them if they have the chance to think about it whilst dying; as for me, I see no evidence to support the notion of an afterlife (and no, the burden of proof is NOT on me) and realise that there is a whole lot of nothing waiting for me after death.

~mdb

 

[Me Myself]

I suspect that faith depends on an intuitive sense of knowing that is not based on reasoning or empirical knowledge, so attempting to prove faith-based beliefs, as fundamentalists are often fond of, is a sign of lack of faith, or may even cause them to question or lose faith. I'm thinking especially of the ones who are at war with science, and allow their religious authorities to screen out any challenging science and pick the ones that might support their claims.

I htink I agree with all of what you say. To look for a "reason" for faith on my personal understanding will most of the times "undermine" the faith. Now sometimes you find first the reason and then the faith, and then you understand the "reason" was merely something that psychologically enabled you to beleive rather than something that conclusively told you it was the right thing.

In this cases I think the "reasons" might be something along the lines of a zen saying I´ve heard around:

"Don´t confuse the finger pointing at the sun with the sun itself"

Most rational people use a blend of intuitive or faith-based knowing, and reason - some going more on faith, others using reason wherever possible, and modern examples of people hearing voices telling them to do something they consider ahorent or illogical are not celebrated as great testaments of faith -- they are the acts of the deranged lunatic -- so relying too greatly on faith may lead some in dangerous directions.

I would personally beleive that when one relies on TRUE faith, the acts that come out can only be for the betterment of all. I do understand that there are no exterior signs that could garantee 100% who has faith and who doesn´t, nor is there a way to garantee 100% through symptoms to have a completely infalible way to see internaly if you have or do not have the "true" faith.

Unfortunately, Faith is more ellusive than the sun

 

[Katzpur]

Is it that they are not quite sure of their faith for that do they not know what their faith tells them?

I'm wondering why you think they're any more afraid of death than anybody else. I'm certainly not afraid of death in the slightest. I don't look forward to the pain or loss of dignity that may accompany the dying process, but I am absolutely not afraid of what comes after death. If I'm right, and there is a God who loves me, everything will be better for me after I die than it is right now. If I'm wrong and there is no God at all, I'll never know I was wrong. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

 

[Dezzie]

I am not a person of faith, but death terrifies me. Even though I am not certain that Heaven is a real place, I am so afraid to die... even if I might just rot in the ground.

 

[`mud]

Cognizance, and the fear of the loss of it !
Atheists don't possess much fear of the loss of it.
But they regret the losing of their values of life, and it's importance.
Theists are possesed by the promises made to them from their peers,
not to mention their ministers, preists, rabis and other odd salesmen.
The belief in Hell, heaven, purgatory, and forgivness for loss of faithfulness,
are amongst the worst of the offenses proffessed by the "elders" upon us.
I believe in doing what I will, for all that care,
and harming none.
The memories of what I am must pass on to those who really cared,
and those who didn't aren't really important.
Cognizance would be nice, but eternity is a long, long time.
Memories of me will have to suffice, I can only hope they'll be fondly held.
~
All in all....I'll have to believe in a flip of Pascal's coin
~
`mud

 

[atanu]

There is an art to dying. That is, an art to emotionally letting go of things. The religious people you are thinking of -- the religious people who are afraid of death -- have not mastered the art of dying.

That is true. Yet, I am extremely fearful of the time when each breath will be a struggle. Because the organs that we have come to depend on will ask for the pound of flesh -- oxygen.

I am not fearful of death at all. I know that death equals freedom. But I am apprehensive of what may come before that.

 

[work in progress]

My points remain above, about how once we have accepted Christ we don't need to fear. People too often fear that if they slip up, they lose their salvation. I don't agree with that. Not b/c of some "once saved, always saved" doctrine but b/c God promises to forgive and nothing in Scripture supports that kind of "lose fear". IMO it goes against God's character and nature. I think if a person is worried, that is a good thing b/c it shows the Holy Spirit is speaking to their heart so really they have no need to b/c the Holy Spirit would not be there to convict their hearts if they were not saved anymore. Typically the one who commits blaspheme of the Holy Spirit and is not saved (either if they were previously or not) will not fear and have that conviction. I still hold that it is unnecessary to fear hell as a believer, unless you (general) are actively, intentionally rebelling, in a stubborn way, continually resisting, rejecting and insulting the Holy Spirit's work in your heart.

I've heard different versions of "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" that run anywhere from 'anyone who stops believing is a blasphemer to a more recent take that this sin only applied during the time of Pentacost, when the Holy Spirit was active in the world. The second version takes this issue out of play completely, the first version was used as blackmail to stiffle questioning and doubt.

From my perspective, these aren't real issues anyway, because I don't believe heaven and hell are possible because everything that makes us human and conscious, is physical and does not exist as any sort of unified pattern after death. I believe the growing body of scientific evidence confirms a suspicion that many mystics have had for centuries - that our understanding of our inner nature (an ego, or a unified mind directing the body) is false.

The mind is an impermanent cascade of mental states which can change throughout our lives. We think we are the same people we were 5, 10, or 20 years ago because that is what the brain-generated sense of mind informs us about ourselves; but if the physical processes going on in the brain change significantly, the changes to our outward personality may be significant enough to be noticed by others.

Ultimately, it's these reasons why I cannot accept concepts of absolute judgment - either reward or punishment - for the things people do in their lives. How we think, how we act, and how we form our beliefs is inextricably connected with the genetic and environmental factors that made us the way we are. Assigning an ultimate judgment on people for how they act or what they believe in, cannot be ethical.

When it comes to the way things are in this world - we have to apply limited judgment, and I would argue - limited rewards as well, because we live in a world where we have to encourage people to act better and discourage harmful behaviour, and remove the really dangerous people who cannot be rehabilitated in any meaningful way. Someone who is psychopathic, and unable to process the emotional feedback that most of us get, may not have a choice about their disorder, but if they are prone to violence, they have to be locked away from the rest of society....but, I don't believe they should spend eternity in hell afterwards, regardless of which criminal we're talking about. The concepts of free will have wreaked havoc with the justice system, by basing a punishment system on revenge and retribution.

 

[work in progress]

I htink I agree with all of what you say. To look for a "reason" for faith on my personal understanding will most of the times "undermine" the faith. Now sometimes you find first the reason and then the faith, and then you understand the "reason" was merely something that psychologically enabled you to beleive rather than something that conclusively told you it was the right thing.

In this cases I think the "reasons" might be something along the lines of a zen saying I´ve heard around:

"Don´t confuse the finger pointing at the sun with the sun itself"

I'm not someone who reaches for faith to provide answers, but reason is limited to what we are able to discover and prove about the world. Many atheists would contend that the great mysteries, such as the origins of our Universe, and how it was created, be left as blank chapters in the book of life, awaiting further discovery. Needless to say, that's not going to be a satisfying answer to many, if not a majority of people, so I can't scoff at people who just go with faith, or an intuitive feeling about our place in the Universe. A strictly physical explanation will come off as cold and disturbing to alot of people, especially at this point in history, when we don't have the feeling of optimism we had about scientific progress a few decades ago.

I would personally beleive that when one relies on TRUE faith, the acts that come out can only be for the betterment of all. I do understand that there are no exterior signs that could garantee 100% who has faith and who doesn´t, nor is there a way to garantee 100% through symptoms to have a completely infalible way to see internaly if you have or do not have the "true" faith.

Unfortunately, Faith is more ellusive than the sun

I would still be curious if someone, like a mentally disturbed mother who drowned her children after experiencing visions and voices, likely brought on by the highly emotional pentacostal services she started attending -- could ever tell the difference between true and false faith. For most people, a voice telling them to do something illogical or repugnant would be evidence of a false faith, but as Kierkegaard pointed out, that's exactly what Abraham was told and expected to do.

 

[Nadia Faiazova]

Hi! Death is our enemy, not a friend, there is no reason to like it, because we were created to live and not to die.-1 Corinthians 15:26

 

[flouncing floo]

In my experience people of faith seem more afraid of death than non believers, which makes you think they aren't quite as comfortable with their belief system as they would like people to believe!

 

[work in progress]

In my experience people of faith seem more afraid of death than non believers, which makes you think they aren't quite as comfortable with their belief system as they would like people to believe!

I would have to agree it seems this way as a general rule. The whole purpose for creating religions with demanding rituals, tests, and obligations for attaining immortal paradise sure seem to have been rooted in a primordial awareness that death will knock on our door at some future time. The best quick explanation for how religion got started that I've heard came from stand up comic - Jimmy Dore....something along the lines of 'if everyone lived to be 1,000 years old, we would have never bothered to invent religion....or, maybe when we turned 900 we would start thinking:"maybe I should start going back to church again"'

The problem with an important belief that is based on faith, is what happens to most people who have doubts at some point in their lives? Especially, what happens if someone is facing death and starting to have doubts about the heavenly reward awaiting them. Most rational people are not doctrinaire fundamentalists all their lives, so there should be at least a little room to contemplate death as an end of personal existence and consciousness.

 

[Vinayaka]

it seems a bigger predicted shock if you're of faith and nothing happens than if you're an atheist and something happens.

 

[sarnath]

If death is just a transition from one state to another, fear of death is nothing but fear of change.
Granted, death is a rather extreme change.

 

[Storm]

it seems a bigger predicted shock if you're of faith and nothing happens than if you're an atheist and something happens.

If "nothing happens," you're incapable of shock.