Death anxiety linked to acceptance of intelligent design: study

[kpete]

Death anxiety linked to acceptance of intelligent design: study

By Eric W. Dolan


Research conducted at the University of British Columbia and Union College found that people's death anxiety was associated with support of intelligent design and rejection of evolutionary theory.

Death anxiety also influenced those in the study to report an increased liking for Michael Behe, a prominent proponent of intelligent design, and an increased disliking for Richard Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist.

The findings suggest that people are motivated to believe in intelligent design and doubt evolutionary theory because of unconscious psychological motives.

The study was lead by UBC Psychology Assistant Professor Jessica Tracy and and UBC psychology PhD student Jason Martens. It was published in the March 30 issue of the open access journal PLoS ONE.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017349

[SheilaT]

1. I have long noticed that a lot of people

who claim to believe in conventional religion, including conventional heaven (and hell) are the most reluctant to die. They are the ones who want to preserve life at any cost. Weird.

I have my own beliefs, which do include life after death, and while I'm not in a particular hurry to leave this life, when it's over it's over, and I'm convinced there is something else after.

[rrneck]

2. Oh

So they're stupid AND chickenshit.

[WhiteTara]

5. Yep! No doubt about it. n/t

[greiner3]

3. So I can nominate half the people in the US that die;

For inclusion in the Darwin Awards?

[Ozymanithrax]

4. Though I find the Hammerof's Quantum Consciousness...

a beautiful and elegant idea, I am convinced that with death I am gone forever, except for the pieces of my DNA bequeathed to my descendent's, and fat worms.

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/documents/EnlightenedNext.pdf

[Liquorice]

6. I've long thought that was the reason for the left-behind people. They

want to get out of life without dying at all. It's interesting that people of traditional religious beliefs tend to emphasize faith, but in a way they are sometimes the ones who actually have the least faith. I think some of them go around talking about their strong faith all the time because they are in denial of their fear and lack of faith and are in a chronic state of reaction formation.

I do think there is something after this life, but I do not belong a religious organization. Religion and spirituality are very different things to me.

[Control-Z]

7. A study was needed

to figure this out?

[devils chaplain]

12. No...

But I'm glad they're done anyway to drive home a point.

[Lint Head]

8. The fear of death is very powerful. It has been used for eons by society's

elite to control the masses. The fear of death is used by criminals to rob people. Duh.

[devils chaplain]

11. As Marx said...

Religion is the opiate of the masses. "Hey, your life on Earth may suck, but don't worry too much about things. Paradise awaits!"

[FLyellowdog]

9. I still don't get it.

If there is life after death, and one has lived the righteous life (been saved, forgiven, etc.), why would they be afraid to die? If heaven is such a great place, why not be happy to leave this world for the next? I mean, how unhappy could one possibly be with streets of gold and angels singing all the time? Such a waste of brain power to even comtemplate such a thing. :hi:

[devils chaplain]

10. When I was a kinda/sorta/want-to-be believer...

I was haunted by the thought of death and what lay beyond. Getting beyond that fear was a major part of my becoming an atheist -- I didn't need that security blanket anymore, and my mind has been at peace.

Life is short, and for each of us, it's all there is. It's a one in a ga-zillion shot that any of us is here at all. Let's make something of it.

[Biker13]

13. Anyone Who Says...

they are not afraid of death is full of shit. Can't we even agree on that? I say that as someone who is close, AND an atheist.

What's happened to honesty? Is even this political now?

Biker's Old Lady

[Withywindle]

14. I wonder about this too.

I'm not an atheist, I belong to a "disorganized religion" that has no specific doctrine on life after death (it has no specific doctrine about much of anything except that where we live now, and the beings we share it with, are sacred). And I am fucking terrified of death, always have been.

I am terrified of the lights going out forever. I am terrified of giving up trees and music and food and scents and laughing and swimming and traveling and writing and friends and lovers. I'm terrified of the idea of no more summer nights. I cannot begin to wrap my brain around the idea of the loss of the smell of autumn leaves. The idea of there being a time when I will no longer be able to experience even the teeniest little satisfaction, like a moment of good bus timing, HORRIFIES me, and I can't see how it will ever stop doing so. I love this world with all my being, and I love my own being too.


I am even MORE terrified of the deaths of those I love than I am of my own. Which is saying a great deal. So fuck yeah, I am terrified of death, and I don't really understand those who aren't. I envy them, but on an emotional level, I cannot even relate to not fearing death. It hasn't made me cling to a doctrine, though. It's just given me a lifetime of nightmares.

[Biker13]

16. Thank You Withywindle!!

I truly mean this. We're all in this together, and a bit of honesty goes a long way.

Biker's Old Lady

[Withywindle]

19. Thank you too, BOL!

:hi:

I don't necessarily disbelieve the people who say they don't fear death--like I said, I envy them, I wish I could get there, but I just can't. But I think it's very good for people who DO fear it to be able to speak out without being seen as "weak." We ARE all in this together, which means that those who dread the loss of the whole world should be able to get some respect for our pre-emptive grief.


When I say that I'm not an atheist, I mean I do definitely believe in the existence of a spirit world far beyond that which humans can perceive. I wasn't taught this as a child, I grew up in an atheist family, but I have had experiences that I cannot dismiss that have convinced me that there is more to the universe than humans have the means to fully understand (Yet! I think these forces are available to be understood, we're just not there yet.).

So do I think there is a spirit world beyond the material? Yes. Do I believe that this being who thinks of herself as "I" and looks out at the world through the two brown eyes I see in the mirror, has real experiences of the universe before this body was born and will endure past the death of this body? Magic 8-ball: Ask Again Later. I desperately want it to be true, but I just have to accept that I cannot know. I love my home on Earth, either way, and I hate the people who want to convince us that this beautiful place is somehow corrupt compared to an afterlife that's not even described well. (Even Dante, such a great poet, could not make Heaven nearly as compelling as Hell.)

[fizzgig]

17. i wonder, too

death is the only thing i truly fear and i am fucking TERRIFIED of it.

i am by no means religious, more agnostic than atheist, but that fear has never pushed to any doctrine.

[Withywindle]

20. I think what it really boils down to, for me, is this:

I enjoy life. A LOT. Sometimes, life has been all I have. Even when I've been in my worst-barely-surviving-depressive times, I could still...well, get lost in a good book. Smell some fresh air. Eat when I was hungry. Think about good memories I have with loved ones.

I just don't want that to end. I do not want the lights to shut out for good. Even if I live past 100, I know there will still be so many summer evenings still left without me there. I want to be there for ALL OF THEM, and I could never be bored with fireflies.


There really isn't anything scarier than the end of everything, IMO. That's the ultimate fear.

[ohheckyeah]

21. Bless you for your honesty.

And I'm with you. This whole death thing just pisses me off. I'm terrified of never being able to read another good book, or seeing a beautiful oak tree, or enjoy the singing of birds or the total satisfaction and contentment I feel when I have a really fine cup of coffee. If there's no coffee involved then it's NOT heaven. :-)

I'm terrified of my parents, who are each 84, dying and I feel the dread every damn day. My husband is 11 years older than I am and I can't let myself think about him dying.

I've known two people who did not fear death....my grandmother and an aunt. My grandmother died with a smile on her face.

[Withywindle]

24. Thanks, but I'm just sad that my honesty is so rare.

I'm pissed off that I won't get to see any of the acorns that fell from the tree in my parents' yard when I was visiting last fall become as huge and beautiful as the oak tree I bonded with when I was a child (which was probably about 300 years old at the time--in its prime!).

I WANT to be able to see this. I WANT 300 years to watch a single acorn. I have the opposite of ADD, my attention span is way too fucking long.

My parents are in their 60s and I absolutely do NOT want to outlive them. I guess I have to, because it's a child's duty, but ugh. Ugh. I fear it. I fear it SO HARD. Fear of death. It's real, and it's not dishonorable.

[Biker13]

25. Bless You Both!

I think this could have been a great thread, but not many wanted to chime in.

Too bad, I guess some topics are still taboo, or just to hard to talk about.

Biker's Old Lady

[ohheckyeah]

31. Most people don't want to discuss

death I guess. It's certainly not a fun topic but I believe we could all benefit from an open and honest discussion about it.

Has anyone come up with an alternative? ;-)

[ReggieVeggie]

26. I'm not afraid of death

just scared of my own shadow

Still, I was electrocuted some time ago and the prospect that I might have been killed didn't phase me much. Of course, that was after the experience, so if I'd known it was coming, I'm sure I would have tried to avoid it at all costs.

[sakabatou]

27. I'm not afraid of death. Dying on the other hand...

[PassingFair]

29. I have anxiety about death.

But not really FEAR.

I fear PAIN, and I worry about
my loved ones and what will happen
to them when I'm not here to take
care of them.

But I don't really fear "the other side".

And if I am in pain near the end, I just
might welcome death.

My sister-in-law died two weeks ago, at
age 45. She was very brave, but after suffering
from cancer for over a year, she wasn't afraid,
just resigned and drugged.

I loved her, and I miss her.

[MisterP]

15. chickenshits are fearful, anxious, and butcher theology and politics to fit such? no! nt

[Rex]

18. Fear is a strong motivator.

[Lionel Mandrake]

22. Unconscious psychological motives

are what religion and other superstitions are all about.

"Intelligent design" is creationism masquerading as science. Most Americans who say that ID is science are Christian fundamentalists. The purpose of their deception is to to pollute high-school biology classes with ID shit and thereby prevent students from learning much about biological evolution. Though they have failed at this, they have managed to prevent many teachers and textbook publishers from covering the topic of evolution adequately. As a result, most American college students need remedial training in evolution.

[Forkboy]

23. File this under "no duh!"

:)

[NoodleyAppendage]

28. Freud figured this out about 110 years ago. Thanatos, baby. n/t

J

[hifiguy]

30. Not surprising at all

Us rational types know that death is inevitable and that (1) There is no pie in the sky when you die, and (2) there is no eternal fire pit where the guy with the pitchfork does his business.

You either recycle into the cosmos as the Buddhists have conceived of karma, or you're just dead as a doornail, taking the eternal dirt nap.

This doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's just what is.