The Religious Approach to Death - Essay Example

See the Attachment Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: See the Attachment Death is an occurrence which has continuously led to many heated up discussions and arguments, all of which are aimed towards deciphering the meaning of death, its significance and the reason why its occurs. Ideally no one wants to die; and if immortality was an option in life, majority would have gone for it. Because of the anonymity of death, various communities have specific attitudes towards death1 . Equally so are various religions which try to give a meaning to death; a significance of why everyone should pass this terrifying stage. Death has also been a subject of study for many psychology, medical and social scholars. With their studies, they have come up with various approaches to death, defining its significance according to various aspects. Generally, most of the approaches talk about the death of the brain and the soul, which leads to the detachment of the life from the physical body2. However, no approach has ever been successful in giving the correct explanation of death. This is because of the anonymous state of death; no one knows when his or her time is up. Ideally, a correct approach could have been realized if there was someone who rose from death and hence giving a firsthand experience of it. The following essay will analyse the ways I which religious faith shapes our attitudes towards death. The essay will also state whether the religious approach to death is a good one. For the purposes of this paper, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism religions will be analysed. At this point, this paper acknowledges the existence of other religions and the selection of the four religions is not based on any biased approached. One of the religious faiths which shape attitudes towards death is Christianity. One of the most important attitudes towards death in Christianity is the belief of an afterlife3 (Tobin 2006, p.1). The belief that Jesus Christ, who is believed to be the son of God, died and resurrected is the foundation of this belief of an afterlife. According to Christians, there is an afterlife whereby people will have eternal life. On this point, Christians believe in resurrection whereby there will be a reunion of the body and the soul. However, the eternal life is determined by the way a person lives his or her life on earth. Precisely put, a person who is good and lives by the Christian values will spend eternal life in heaven, enjoying the great life which God prepared for him or her. On the other hand, a person who leads a life which goes against the values of Christianity will spend his or her eternal life in hell, suffering under the hot fire which Satan has been preparing. For this reason, Christianity cultivates an attitude towards death that it is a passage to afterlife. For this reason, death is viewed as a good thing since it allows an individual to pass on to the eternal life. Another attitude which Christianity develops in people is that death is a punishment for sins done4 . A common phrase in Christianity and in the Bible, which is the holy book of the Christians ‘the wages of sin is death’ drives this attitude home. For this reason, unnatural deaths are usually a reason to worry to Christians. From the above argument, it can be seen that the Christian faith embraces natural death since it is seen as a passage to afterlife, but despises unnatural death since it is seen as a consequence of sin5.These are the attitudes which are developed in Christians. Another major religion in the world which has changed the attitudes of the people towards death is Islam. Just like Christianity, Islam has the belief of an afterlife after death6 .In addition to this, the belief that if one leads a good life as Allah desires will spend the afterlife in heaven and if he/she lives contrary to the desire of Allah, he or she will spend eternity in hell7. Because of this, Muslims embrace death as part of life; as a bridge to eternal life. Owing to the strict adherence which Muslims have on their religion, this attitude has often been used wrongly by terrorists who aligned to Islam. The manipulation of this attitude and belief is used by terrorists to convince fellow Muslims to conduct suicide bomb attacks. This is very wrong according to the teaching of Islam, since no one has the power to determine another persons or his own time of death8. The theory that a suicide bomber finds virgins waiting for him has been cited as a motivating factor to many suicide bombers. However, his attitude to death is not what Islam upholds; but is a result of an ill interpretation of the religion. Moreover, the belief that death is a detachment of the soul from the body is also upheld in Islam, just as it is in Christianity. From this, it can be seen that Muslims believe that death is good, since it enables one to enter the afterlife. But it is good when one has finished his work on earth. According to Hinduism, death represents an end to the present life and an onset of new life. With respect to Hinduism, it is important to note the reincarnation concept, which stipulates that once an individual dies, he or she returns back to life in another form. The form in which an individual returns to the world in is determined by the manner in which he or she lived on earth in his or her human life9. The concept of the trans migration of the soul is also a part of the Hinduism attitude towards death. These beliefs enable Hindus to have a care free attitude towards death, since they see it as just an end of one life, and the start of another. The general attitude in Hinduism is that death is a temporary state which allows for the migration of the should into another life10. Although people still fear death, the belief that they will return into life in another form is always appealing. Lastly, Buddhism still has the belief of a life after death. The opinion that death provides an option for a rebirth is upheld in this faith. Basically, the Buddhism faith acknowledged the need to prepare oneself for the coming death via meditation11 (Walshe 1978, p.20). Just as other religions, Buddhists believe that death must occur at one time so as to bring an end to the life on earth and open the doors for the life after death, but the time of death is still uncertain. Although Buddhists still fear death, the knowledge that they will be reborn back into life enables them to develop a positive attitude towards life12 From the religious approach towards death which has been discussed above, it can be seen that there is still confusion in the real meaning of death. A universal significance of death is still ambiguous. On the other hand religion gives meaning to death to their followers. Looking at the appropriateness of a religious approach to death, it can be seen that it is a good approach, and on the other hand, it is a bad approach. Why good? From the religious approach, people are able to know the meaning of death to life. It should be acknowledged that religion is a way of life; hence an explanation about death related to life is the most appropriate explanation to give to an individual. From the discussion in the paper, it has been seen that there is one fundamental belief in religion; a life after the present life which occurs only after death. Moreover, a religious approach to death compels people to lead a good life on earth, so as to be guaranteed of a good life afterwards. On the other hand, a religious approach to life fails to address the reason of dying. It only explains the cycle of life; on earth and after death which seems to be a script which is already there for people to act. On this point, the question of ‘why die and not be immortal?’ crops up. For this reason, people are compelled to turn to scientific and philosophic approaches to death. Moreover, the assurance of life after death is a subject of much contention. Is it guaranteed that one will live after death? On this point, dictating ones way of life just because of an ambiguous promise based on faith since no one knows of life after death is an act of restraining ones life on earth. Lastly, the existence of the physical body and a reason for its demise is a major point of contention from a religious perception13. In conclusion, it has been seen that religion has a great influence on people’s attitudes towards death. This essay has analysed the attitudes to death with respect from a Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist point of view. One point which comes up clearly in all the religions is that there is a promise of some sort of life, reincarnation or rebirth after death. This is the promise which changes the perception of people towards death. In fact, it has been seen that it compels people to live according to the provisions of their faiths so as to be guaranteed of a good afterlife. From the arguments above, it can be concluded that a religious approach is both a good and bad approach to death. This necessitates that need to use the religious approach to death hand in hand with other approaches. References Ar és, P., 1974. Western Attitudes Toward Death: From The Middle Ages To The Present, Baitimore, Johns Hopkins University Press. Gervals,K., 1986. Redefining Death, New Haven, Yale University Press. Galli, M., 2011. Heaven, Hell and Rob Bell: Putting The Pastor In Context, Christianity Today, Retrieved on 18th Feb 2013 from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/marchweb-only/rob-bell-universalism.html Hanson, H., 2010. Islam, Retrieved on 18th Feb 2013 from http://www.deathreference.com/Ho-Ka/Islam.html Islamic Center of Blacksburg for Islamic Information & Education, 1995. Dying and Death: Islamic View, IQRAA, Vol. 4, No.3, pp. 1-3 Jayaram, V., 2010. Hinduism and Death, Hindu Website, Retrieved on 18th Feb 2013 from http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_death.asp Lamb,D., 1985. Death, Brain Death and Ethics, London, Croom Helm. Sharma, D., 1990. Hindu Attitude Toward Suffering, Dying And Death, Palliat Med, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 235-238 Tobin, E., 2006. What Happens after Death- the Last Things, pp.1-4 Walshe, M., 1978. Buddhism and Death, Buddhist Publication Society The Wheel Publication No. 261, pp. 1-26 Read More