Fear - Fear of Death

Fear of Death

Psychologists have addressed the hypothesis that fear of death motivates religious commitment, and that it may be alleviated by assurances about an afterlife. Empirical research on this topic has been equivocal. According to Kahoe and Dunn, people who are most firm in their faith and attend religious services weekly are the least afraid of dying. A survey of people in various Christian denominations showed a negative correlation between fear of death and religious concern.

In another study, data from a sample of white, Christian men and women were used to test the hypothesis that traditional, church-centered religiousness and de-institutionalized spiritual seeking are distinct ways of approaching fear of death in old age. Both religiousness and spirituality were related to positive psychosocial functioning, but only church-centered religiousness protected subjects against the fear of death.

Shelly Kagan examines the philosophical background of whether fear of death make sense (not about the actual kind of emotional reaction). In this context he states in one of his lectures, that there are certain conditions to fear in general to make sense:

  • fear requires something bad, as the object of fear and
  • there's got to be a nonnegligible chance of the bad state of affairs happening, to their mind

Read more about this topic:  Fear

Famous quotes containing the words fear of death, fear of, fear and/or death:

    “Think of the better world we could build if men and women, if even for a little while longer, were freed from their greatest fear: the fear of death and the grave.”
    —Robert D. Andrews, and Nick Grindé. Dr. Ralph Howard (Edward Van Sloan)

    “Up the airy mountain,
    Down the rushy glen,
    We daren’t go a-hunting
    For fear of little men.”
    —William Allingham (1824–1889)

    “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
    —Larry Forrester, U.S. screenwriter, Hideo Oguni, and Ryuzo Kikushima. Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku. Admiral Yamamoto (Soh Yamamura)

    “Some say that gleams of a remoter world
    Visit the soul in sleep,—that death is slumber,
    And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber
    Of those who wake and live.—”
    —Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)