Religion a Reponse to the Inevitable?

[Stravo]

Is religion a response to man's recognition of the inevitability of death? Not wanting to consider the possibility that this is the only shot you get at life and when its all over there's simply oblivion is religion a desperate way of rationalizing that it's not over. We get a second shot at a better life that get this....lasts forever. Even the Eastern religions like Buddhism recognize a never ending life cycle. No religion that I'm aware of accepts that this is it. Whether you come back as an ant, achieve perfect conciousness and live forever or are judged and sent to a blast furnace or a cloud with a god issued harp its all about not accepting that death is final.

Or is Religion a response to a very real phenemenon of feeling and perceiving something else out there?

[K. A. Pital]

The "incarnation" means little in terms of "avoiding death" in a Christian/Abrahamic sense of the words; essentially, as an individual, you die, because you have no memory from past lives. So it's a lot different from the Abrahamic religions, which preach an invidual survival.

[Ariphaos]

Not necessarily, the concept of heaven and a meaningfully sentient soul is actually rather new in Western religion. Before the Dionysian mystery cults, most Hellenites believed that nearly everyone led a bleak existence in Hades, and the Hebrews, despite believing in the soul, believed that it did not possess any awareness or knowledge.

[Darth Raptor]

Dualism and mystical beliefs are in no way required for eternal life. Take me, for instance. I'm as atheistic as they come, but I also suffer from chronic delusional optimism.

A lot can happen in billions of years.

[Steven Snyder]

Is religion a response to man's recognition of the inevitability of death?

I think it is one of the big cornerstones of religion.

Facing oblivion is probably the scariest thing you can personally experience, a time when you just simply are gone. Humans will go through almost endless suffering to avoid this finality, including accepting a doctrine of BS.

The prospect of Eternal Life is what allows Preacher John to comfort Little Timmy's parents after a horrible accident and tell them there boy is in a better place. It is also the same thing that enables him to put the fear into the sinners of his congregation by exclaiming of endless torture in hell if they don't comply.

Take Eternal Life out of the equation and the religion is neutered.

[Fire Fly]

I see it more or less as compensating for not being able to understand the natural world. Religion provides a certain means of explaining that which cannot be understood, which seems to be evident in all forms of religion. I cite the many religious backlashes against science in the various past and present to support my claim. As we find out more and more how the universe works, more and more of the religious fundamentalists become angry because the mystery of life is no longer there, that and their "rationales" do not agree with the scientific findings. And to answer to the OP, yes, religion is partially a response to death.

[The_Nice_Guy]

The power of religion is probably waning because people are living longer in greater prosperity; the fear of death has decreased.

Wait till scientists come up with age/youth extending technology, plus software that allows us to store ourselves digitally. That'll be the nail in their coffin.

TWG