My car was hurtling down the steep mountain road, faster and faster. I was powerless to steer, unable to brake, and unable to see clearly through my cataract clouded eyes. All was a blur as I descended completely out of control in, of all things, a Lincoln Towncar. Wriggling, kicking, and screaming, I had no control whatsoever over the inevitable crash through the barrier and into the abyss. I was not going gently into that horrific night. A split second before the crash, I lurched from my nightmare, my body in a cold sweat. You don’t have to be Freud to interpret the fear of death symbolism in my frightful dream.
Awareness of the certainty of one's eventual death. It’s what separates humans from other species. As Schopenhauer observed, “Unlike man, animals…live without knowing death.” Death gives meaning to our existence. Children and adolescents give little thought to their own mortality, living, daring, and risking as though they will never die. As we get older, thoughts of our own demise intrude with increasing frequency as we lose loved ones and friends and we experience health scares that force us to contemplate the great existential questions. As we close in on the inevitable, many of us experience bouts of death anxiety that change the way we choose to live out our remaining time. Some work harder to leave a lasting contribution to the world. Some start on their bucket lists. Some step-up their visits to the doctor, exercise, and use of health supplements. Some more actively try to right the wrongs they have committed. And, most people in the world turn to their gods to prepare for a good afterlife.
Without a shred of empirical evidence, most people in the world believe in an afterlife as a matter of faith. Of the world’s 6.9 billion people, the vast majority practice religions that promise a better life after death. Here are the major religions, their populations, and their concept of an afterlife:
RELIGION POPULATION AFTERLIFE
Christianity 2.1 billion Heaven or Hell
Islam 1.5 billion Paradise or Hell
Hinduism .9 billion Reincarnation
Buddhism .4 billion Reincarnation
Sikhism 23 million Reincarnation
Judaism 14 million None (for most denominations)
Baha’i 7 million Soul to Heaven or Hell
Shinto 4 million Spirit joins Kami
The adherents of these religions add up to about 5 billion people, or 72% of the world’s population. One way to cope with death anxiety is to believe that you will move on to a better afterlife, provided you have lived your mortal existence according to the tenets of your religion. As Camus explained, “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.”
Most people embrace the notion that they will live on, in one form or another, after they die. To me, this is a shared delusion of massive proportions, encouraged by most religions to help believers cope with death anxiety. This mass delusion causes people to behave irrationally, and even to sacrifice their lives. I knew an otherwise healthy 68 year-old man who refused routine surgery for early stage throat cancer, even though he was told by a surgeon that there was a 99% success rate, believing that he would soon be in a better place. Less than two years later, he went to his grave. Would the 9/11 terrorists, and others like them, go so zealously to their suicide deaths if they had not been indoctrinated from childhood with the belief in an afterlife in paradise? To the unbeliever, death is the end; to the believer, it is just the beginning. I wonder if true believers suffer with death anxiety and death nightmares.
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