Why are JWs scared of death? (page 3)

NikL

All of this talk of propiganda!
I just made a post asking for thoughts on a phenomenon I have noticed. I have no "hidden agenda". I do not hate witnesses. My wife is a witness and I love her very much. I was a witness for a good many years myself so I have had time to observe how many witnesses react to death and the thought of dying. I wanted to know if others made the same observation and if they had any thoughts on the topic.I for one am at a loss as to why the fear should be though I am forming a clearer picture from all of the posts and have been given some fine food for thought.
So if we can forget about the whole propiganda issue and get back to the topic at hand. I for one would be grateful. Thanks :-)

Utopian Reformist

I think my fears begin and end with the current knowledge that once life's physical processes cease to function, it is actually over.

It can't be undone, turned around or reversed, yet. If I lose someone very close, that person will actually expire for good. It will be permanent. Once the breathing stops, the eyes will close, and the heart stops beating, and then it's over.

Refusing to let go of someone will not prevent it or reverse it, nor will crying or trying to keep the person awake and talking. It is hopeless. Death is the most irreconcilable concept. I hate it.

There is so much I want to live for and I literally have to condense my lifelong choices, dreams and aspirations, because I won't have time to carry them out.

"Ave Mundi - Morituri te Salutamus!"

lisaBObeesa

Speaking of PROPAGANDA:

“We can truly be happy that it is God’s purpose that we live forever. For think: If you had to decide, on what date would you choose to die? You cannot pick on, can you? You do not want to die, and neither does any other normal person who has a measure of health. God made us with the desire to live, not the desire to die. Regarding the way God made humans, the Bible says: ‘He has even put eternity into their minds.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11, Byington) What does this mean? It means that ordinarily people desire to live on and on, without dying. Due to this desire for an endless future, man have long searched for a way to stay young forever.”

*************************************Life Forever book

The above is the typical thing JWs read a MILLION times.
‘You don’t want to die!’ ‘You want to live!’ ‘It’s not natural to die!’

Of course they are afraid of death. More afraid of death than most other people, I would say.

--LisaBObeesa

Ranchette

The reason I was terrified of dying was their teaching of what kind of life a resurected one could look forward to!!I know others have mentioned this, but the thought of me or my husband dying and then when when resurected not being able to be together as husband and and wife along with our children didn't seem like a comforting hope at all.I couldn't stand picturing one or the other of us married to someone else raising the kids.Being punished because one of us had died? How sick!
This was a tramitizing teaching that I could never come to grips with.As a result I was phobic about death in case this is what Jah required!
I'm so glad to be free of that now.
I don't have the answers about what happens after death, but I've accepted that it's out of my control.I just try to enjoy life and I'll deal with what comes later.
Ranchette

Teirce

Millions now dying will never live.

There is also the realization, by JWs of accomplishment or potential, that their potential will never be seen and appreciated by those to whome it would matter most, ie, worldly people who have a refined sense of taste, artistry, composition. There's plenty JWs who might buy in that the 'whole world is passing away', but many still harbor the dream of being something, here and now, visibly, if only in a diet-sense so as to remain in the org. The prospect of death is the harrowing prospect of leaving no legacy, no ideologic tombstone, no epitaph or famous quotation that can one day inspire someone who didn't know you directly.

Undine

NikL,

Very intriguing topic you raise. Hmmm...I was one of them from the age of thirteen up until the age of thirty eight. (Been "away" for four years now.) Here is what I think is interesting. All of those years I was never afraid of actual death...but what I have been afraid of is being tortured before I die...I remember a particular Tuesday night bookstudy evening...The conductor was speaking about "the end" and how we must "remain faithful" even in the midst of heinous persecution...He spoke about torture tactics, and I specifically remember him raising this question, in his waxy southern drawl: "Brothers...we must ask ourselves this very important question...will WE remain faithful if our persecutor decides to remove our fingernails...slowly???" In almost twenty years I have not been able to let go of the fear of being persecuted in some beyond dastardly way. So from the perspective of a long time former jw I can honestly say that I have never been in fear of "death"...of laying in a dreamlike state in my grave...but I HAVE worried about the persecution that was deeply seared into me as being a most definite eventuality. And here is a new realization that just hit me...since I have never told this outloud to anyone, I have a slightly sinking feeling that now, since I have brought my "fear" out into the air, that the demons will make sure I realize what it is that I fear!!! Yup...'tis true...I have work to do, but I have come a hellova long way...good question you raised there...made me think...

Undine

...so much for HTML ô¿ô

peacepipe

I need to put my two cents in about this even though I'm reading it a couple days after the last post.
When I think of the death of those I care about I usually have no problem picturing them going to heaven forever: some people just to me seem like there is nowhere else they could be.

Those who I've been close to that have died that I'm questionable about them actually going to heaven I feel like in some way as long as there are those of us here to remember them they are still kept alive somehow.

When I REALLY think about my own death I have a panic attack. I don't think I'm anything special that deserves to live past this life. I don't think I'd have any great contributions to make in any everlasting life. However, the feeling I get in my very being when I come to the realization that theres nothing else to think about once your dead because your dead forever and ever and ever and ever and ever to all eternity is nothing short of a panic attack. It's just the thought of there being nothing else, not a thought, nothing for ETERNITY scares the living crap out of me. ETERNITY is a long time. What would I do for eternity? Well nothing, I'll be dead. Well, maybe there'll be something else down the road. . . .No, there's not I'll be dead. Well, what will I do all that time?. . Nothing, I'll be dead.

Up to a certain time in my life I felt when you died there was still something else. When your young you don't quite fathom eternal nothingness because of music, shows, books and an ongoing imagination. I used to think about suicide and being in my casket and listening to my music and keeping tabs on those I love- not so bad. But at some point, if you really think hard about it, that realization that there'll be no music hits you hard. (well for some of us I suppose- not everyone)

I know that some hospice workers who work with terminally ill patients use visualization methods to help the patient cope with their death. It puts them in a safe place of comfort, love and peace. I often thought that is the sole purpose of religion. To get your mind to skip over this horrid realization so you can live your life to the fullest without having to be troubled with that black cloud. Because I asked the question in another post what the world would be like if all people were atheists and there were no religions. What would be the moral thread to keep goodness in society? Why would some people care if all they did was get high, drunk, sleep with whoever the want, kill others etc. If you could get away with it then so what? You live, you die. Get what you can because it's all you'll ever have.

I'm tired, this is a stupid reply but maybe someone will reply back that just might give me . . .something. . .I don't know what. Sometimes when your mind tells you something you have to weed through all the thoughts that come in to find just one bud that may blossom into something useful.

PeacePipe

Lift me up, I've had enough. . .Tom Petty

Tina

May I ask why you think atheists are not moral people? That they don't care about their world and the people in it? A world of humanists would probably be a whole lot better and tolerant. It isn't atheists and humanists that have caused the atrocities down thru history. It's been religionists who are convinced that there way is the only right way. Look at all the holy wars,the crusades,the exploitation and conversion of indigenous peoples. The destruction of their cultures.Look at Afhgan and other countries today.
Humanists/atheists attempt to help all regardless of any religious affiliations. They believe that with reason,logic and compassion we can all work together to make this world a better place. I have to say,in my life,that the most caring,compassionate,reasonable people are these. Their love for humanity isn't limited by relgious tnetes and policies. I don't know who you know personally,but the humanists I know have the highest regard for life,and do not live the hedonistic life that you attribute to them. I think your view or definition of atheism comes from the religious folk. If time allows check out a secular humanism website. read their charters and hopes for humankind. You will be greatly surprised. Tina

Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."

patio34

Tina,

Very good defense of humanist/atheists! Thanks. It's damaging to humans, IMO, to think the only reason they are moral is because of a god.

Back to the subject of the thread, fear of death. One thing that has made me more comfortable with the idea of dying someday is that now there are no religious constraints on me to suffer needlessly. I think self-euthanasia is a comfortable possiblity for me if the need arises. Most folks are more afraid of suffering terrible before death than death itself.

Pat

Why are JWs scared of death?

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