I thought this was an interesting tidbit. Considering how much we hear of “the wonders of the afterlife”: sitting at God/Allah/whomever’s throneside, seeing loved ones, joy for all eternity… But I am also thinking, admittedly, mainly of what I hear from watching Big Love every week with all of their “Family’s are together in heaven forever” talk. I thought it was both strange and funny (both kinds of funny to read this article:
Pious fight death the hardest

Seemingly, according to a recent study in the U.S., people who bnelieve in an afterlife are more eager to stay in this life than to move on…

Those who regularly prayed were more than three times more likely to receive intensive life-prolonging care than those who relied least on religion… The researchers from the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute found these people were the least likely to have filled in a “do not resuscitate” order… As well as receiving resuscitation, they were much more likely to be placed on mechanical ventilation in the last few days of life.

Who knows. It may go (I like to think) with two of my theories…

1) People who attest to religous belief do so out of a fear of death

and…

2) People of faith, deep inside (or maybe not so deep) don’t really have that faith anyway. Meaning that, at some level, they know that it is all wishful thinking and BS.

People of unfaith are more apt to accept life and the world for what it truly is, making the inevitability of the nothingness of death soemthing that they are more willing to confront.