Pathetic. More anti-Evangelical irrationality. There’s more to Christianity than born-agains and fundamentalists.

Not according to the born-agains and fundamentalists!

Good old secular web. The voice of reason.

I tend to think that mankind’s belief in God… or gods… in whatever format, are a way for people to not only feel better about death and the afterlife… but, to also feel more in control of things they can’t control in this life. (ex. “Lets pray to the valcano god so it doesn’t explode and kill us! Better yet, throw in a virgin for good measure!”… or “Pray for rain!”.. “God help us win our football game!”) Also, attempts to understand what they can’t understand. You know, all those tough questions that we like to torture ourselves over… Not just death, but, also creation, the meaning of life, and the dreaded. “where’s my other sock?”
~smj

Afterlife has a sort of eschatological ring. An obsession with evangelical, but I am not sure if it is with all of us. I am also not sure that is a constant with all world religions at all times. Some xians (that stream back to earliest followers) believe that our soteriological function was to become fully human. This is a minority view in the church. Buddhists like Thich Nhat Hahn meditate on the “present moment, beautiful moment.” As I said before the earliest Jewish myths speak scantly (if at all) of an afterlife and are made up of laws on how to live concretely in the world. These laws were meant to create a living covenant with God. There are not many promises of an afterlife involved.

That doesn’t mean that rituals and religious customs don’t exist to facilitate an understanding of death, but I think the sociology of religion is too complex to reduce it to that broad a stroke.

Yet, I am compelled to explore the relationship between a fear of death and a person’s beliefs or lack thereof. You have sparked a lot of thoughts in my mind. Thanks.

Your question is interesting. I think more of moving toward a more human direction, but I know that is not the normative religious answer.

You are doing a great thing by getting this information out. We have dealt with so many people that have left fundamentalism, only to return with twice the urgency. We have also dealt with those who have mentally cracked under the absurd pressure.

Aa,

Which Bible college did you attend? I am a Moody alumni myself.

Mystery- I’m not sure that the myth or myths are primarily dealing with human’s fear of death. I will think about that. The Jewish tradition does not really have a heaven.

It’s a pretty powerful myth, Christianity is. For some reason it speaks to a deep need in human beings: to dispel the fear of death. That’s all religion is about anyway, consoling ourselves with the myth of an afterlife. Without the afterlife, there is no need to be saved from anything. What would you be saved from and for?