Ryan Burge is a political science professor, a statistician, and a former minister in the mainline American Baptist Church. He publishes research and analysis on religious life and trends. His most recent post is on how the fear of death varies by age and by religious tradition and it has two main conclusions:
- Across the religious spectrum, people fear death less as they get older.
- Catholics fear death far more than Protestants, Others, or Nones.
The first conclusion is easy to understand. As people get older, they become more settled in what they do and don’t believe. Less uncertainty means less fear. As we age and decline, we start to understand that eventually, death becomes a mercy. Plus it’s easier to accept death when you’ve already lived most of a full life than when you’re young and there’s so much you’ve yet to experience.
The second conclusion is more difficult. Burge says “this may be a situation where theology actually does matter.” Protestant and especially Evangelical theology provides assurances to their adherents that Catholic theology does not, even for devout Catholics.
The sample size for Pagans and related paths is too small to draw meaningful conclusions from this data set. And in any case, this is a deeply personal matter. What other Pagans believe is far less important than what you believe, and why, and how those beliefs impact your outlook on death and what comes after.
So, do you fear death?
Toxic religion causes fear of death
Growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist church, I was very afraid of death. For all that I said the right things and did the right things – and at the time, truly believed the right things – the “born again” and “eternal security” promised by the preachers rang false. Even at a very young age, I understood the difference between knowing and believing in a way they did not.
It didn’t help that they taught that the vast majority of people – including many Christians – were going to hell. That, along with their insistence on reading Genesis literally, convinced me they had critical errors in their theology and that started me on the path that led to where I am today.
It would take many years and a lot of work before I was finally able to exorcise the tentacles of toxic religion from my soul. But I did the work, and I no longer fear death.
Do you fear death? Do you still have religious baggage you need to unpack?
We can be certain death is not bad
It is necessary to begin with what we know, what we don’t know, and what we will never know on this side of death. Last year I wrote A UU Pagan Looks at Death and Beyond. That was a Sunday service at Denton UU intended to present these concepts to a religiously diverse audience.
Perhaps there is an afterlife, perhaps there is reincarnation, perhaps there is both, or perhaps there is nothing. Or perhaps there is something we’ve never considered. We simply cannot say with any certainty.
What we can say with reasonable certainty is that hell and damnation is a human-created fiction, designed to satisfy our desire for justice in a world that often has none… and our desire to punish those who have harmed us. Or just annoyed us.
There is no reason to fear death. It may come at an inopportune time, but what awaits on the other side is at least neutral and likely positive.
There is reason to fear dying badly, but that’s a different question – one we need to address both individually and as a society.
If Professor Burge is right that “theology actually does matter” – and I think he is – then saying “I don’t know, but it won’t be bad” will only take us so far. We need a modern Pagan theology of death and the afterlife. As we approach death, we need to be able to say “I know we can’t know, but this is what I truly believe is coming.”
Good theology will help us move past our fear of death.
Our consciousness never dies
A good Pagan theology of death and what comes after begins with the animist principle that consciousness is independent of brain activity. And also, consciousness – not matter – is fundamental to life. We know our bodies will die and decay, but our consciousness – the essence of who and what we are – will remain. We have good reason to believe that we live on after death.
But what will that life be like?
As I write this, I feel the weight of my body in my chair. I feel the cool air circulating through the room. It’s not yet dinner time, but I’m starting to get hungry… and I know that if I go too long without eating I’ll get anxious and if I go longer my thinking will be impaired. Our experiences are mediated through our bodies.
Meditation and journeying give us a glimpse into what our experiences will be like when we no longer have bodies. These spiritual practices have real, demonstrative, this-world benefits, but they also have the benefit of preparing us for life after death. We know what to expect, because we’ve already experienced it.
Death is a process of transition
Death is not a point in time – there is no “moment of death.” Rather, death is a process. We can observe and measure this physically. Responsiveness declines. Heartbeat and breath slow and then stop. Brain activity ceases. Eventually, decay begins. While there are numerous examples of people who were declared dead and then came back to life, at some point that is no longer possible.
Death is also a spiritual process. People with near death experiences often report rising out of their bodies and observing activities from above. People who are near death speak of ancestors, angels, and even Gods coming to escort them into the afterlife.
We do not simply go to sleep here and wake up in the Otherworld. There is a journey from here to there. Meditation and journeying are practice for that journey. Do it now while you can come back (and must come back – the living belong in this world) so that when you do it when you can’t come back (at least, not quickly and easily) you’ll be familiar with the route and the markers.
And you won’t fear the process of death, because you will have experienced something very similar while you were alive.
We have things to do in the Otherworld
The Charge of the Goddess – which is not scripture but often functions in a similar way – speaks of “peace and freedom and reunion with those who have gone before.” That’s a beautiful way of expressing what most of us expect to experience once we’ve completed our transition into the next life.
But permanent vacation gets rather dull after a while. And no matter how long we live, there’s always something we didn’t do, didn’t experience, didn’t learn, didn’t build.
So yes, I expect a time of rest and reunion. And then I expect a time of review. What did I do well? What did I do poorly? What do I need to do better next time?
Some of this review will be difficult. Much of this life is difficult – why would you expect perpetual ease in the afterlife? There are things I’ve done I should not have done – not rules I broke but people I hurt. There are things I did not do that I should have done – times when I hurt others or myself through inaction, and also experiences I denied myself out of fear.
This is not hell… though it may feel like hell to those who have much to answer for. It’s not punishment – it’s honesty. It’s cause and effect. It’s learning from your mistakes so you don’t make them again next time.
At some point, the review will be over. And then it will be time to do the things we can do there but not here. I don’t know exactly what that is, but I believe it is intended for learning and growth.
And then it will be time to come back to this world and go back to work on the things we can only do here. I think some of us have some input into where and when we are reborn, but I do not think we get to choose all the details, and we certainly don’t sign up for specific suffering like some people claim.
We are immortal
The fear of death is caused by fear of the unknown. While it’s not healthy to dwell on death or to spend so much time thinking about the next life that you forget to live this life fully and completely, it is good and necessary to figure out what you belief and what you don’t. More specifically, meditation and journeying help familiarize us with the Otherworld and with the path from here to there.
The fear of death is caused by toxic religion. Unpack your religious baggage, learn to spot the lies, and learn to spot the truth. Theology matters – develop a good Pagan theology, especially around death and the Otherworld.
Someday our bodies will die, but the essence of who and what we are is immortal and will live on. We will leave the ordinary world and move into the Otherworld, the world of the Gods and ancestors. We will have a time of rest and reunion, and a time for review and for planning. And then we will return to this world to start the process over again.
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