Are the Religious More Afraid of Death?

[curiosityandthecat]

New study: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7105959

Relying on Religion at End of Life

The new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was led by researchers from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Researchers used 45-minute surveys from 345 patients.

Patients were asked about how much they relied upon religion to cope with illness, and researchers found that nearly 80 percent used it at least a moderate amount.

Researchers separated positive religious coping ("seeking God's love") and negative religious coping ("wondering whether God has abandoned me") and found that the extent of positive religious coping was a good predictor of which patients would seek aggressive end-of-life care.

While patients who sought positive religious coping requested aggressive end-of-life care 13.6 percent of the time, those who were not as religious sought it out just 4.2 percent of the time.

"It seems like those patients ... they would hold on as long as possible to give God every opportunity to grant them a miracle and save them," said Holly Prigerson of the department of psycho-oncology and palliative care at Dana Farber.

In the end, she noted, aggressive care did not lead to a more pleasant end.

"We find that those who get more aggressive care have decrements in their quality of life," she said. "The more aggressive care did not predict survival differences."

What do we make of this?

I do have to say that I got a kick out of this part:

"The doctor that operated on me for the colon cancer, I asked him, did he pray before he did his operating?" Holt said. "I wanted to know his connections with the Lord.

"He said that he did not, but he prayed all during an operation," she said. "I was very comfortable with that."

He prayed all during his operation that he wouldn't screw up and his malpractice insurance wouldn't triple, lady.  

[Wendy]

While patients who sought positive religious coping requested aggressive end-of-life care 13.6 percent of the time, those who were not as religious sought it out just 4.2 percent of the time.

So it's really not the "power of prayer" that has saved them, it's aggressive medical treatment.

[SteveS]

Interesting topic - this came up in another thread, the idea that maybe religious belief is connected to a fear of death (i.e. maybe those who don't fear death as much tend more towards atheism then those who fear death more who tend toward religious belief).

I had a humorous religion-in-a-hospital event like this of my own: a few years ago both of my kids, then age 1 and 3, got the rotovirus (nasty - puke everywhere) and had to be hospitalized because they were becoming significantly dehydrated.  So, the day before we were declared healed, the following (or something really similar, I might not remember it exactly) occurred:

ChaplainLady: <knock knock> "Can I come in?"
SteveS: "Sure"
ChaplainLady: "I'm the hospital chaplain.  Is there anything you would like to talk to me about?"
SteveS: "Um, no thanks"
ChaplainLady: "Are you religious?"
SteveS: "No"
ChaplainLady: "Would you be more comfortable if I left?"
SteveS: "Yes"
ChaplainLady: <leaves>

Immediately afterward I felt bad, like maybe I had been rude.  Then, I dismissed this, and figured that the whole thing was done politely by the both of us.  Afterall, what was I supposed to do, lie?

Anyway, if my surgeon was praying during the surgery I think I'd be pissed about it.  I expect him to be doing something useful; working, not praying, dammit!!  
 

[curiosityandthecat]

While patients who sought positive religious coping requested aggressive end-of-life care 13.6 percent of the time, those who were not as religious sought it out just 4.2 percent of the time.

So it's really not the "power of prayer" that has saved them, it's aggressive medical treatment.

Neither, actually. The article says that the choice to partake in aggressive end-of-life treatment has no effect on survival rates but is actually detrimental to the quality of life.

[Kodanshi]

I consider the Why Won’t God Heal Amputees? website a great boon on topics like this.

[Wendy]

While patients who sought positive religious coping requested aggressive end-of-life care 13.6 percent of the time, those who were not as religious sought it out just 4.2 percent of the time.

So it's really not the "power of prayer" that has saved them, it's aggressive medical treatment.

Neither, actually. The article says that the choice to partake in aggressive end-of-life treatment has no effect on survival rates but is actually detrimental to the quality of life.

I had to look a few words up, sorry for the misunderstanding.

I have a prime example of this in a real-life experience. An aquaintence of mine was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was not given very long to live, though I am not sure of the exact time frame doctors gave her. She is a devout christian and also chose aggressive treatment. The past several months she has been so sick, in and out of the hospital, her children are staying at other relatives' homes so she can rest and/or recover from from her treatments. She believes she is still alive because of prayers and of course god working through her doctors. I must say I would not want that sort of quality of life if I were in the same shoes, especially if I was without my children.

So, are religious afraid of death? I think I would be afraid of death if I believed I had a chance of going to a place called hell.

[Hitsumei]

I think that it is very likely that they are.

[Sophus]

Are the Religious More Afraid of Death? Fear is the mother of morality and the gods. Your asking the wrong question. It's would the religious fear death without their religion to provide pseudo comfort?