Does belief in afterlife reduct the death anxiety?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	05610031
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Religious studies
Research Institution	OSAKA CITY UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	KANEKO Satoru Osaka City University, Faculty of Literature, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (10047350)
Project Period (FY)	1993 – 1994
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1994)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 1993: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Keywords	rational thought / spiritual orientation / view of afterlife / death enxiety / death perspectives / religious faith / 来世信仰 / 尺度構成 / 死生観 / 宗教性 / 状態不安
Research Abstract	It seems that the afterlife has no connection with real daily life for the moderns.Since the demonstration of the existence of afterlife is impossible, an assertion on the existence will be turned into ridicule.Most people may think that an afterlife is no more than superstition in modern society accustomed to rational thought. But since the 1980, a harmful influence of scientism was indicated everywhere, and the spiritual orientation became prevalent among young people.It does not matter whether their orientaion is serious or fun. The important is arecurrence of a mysticism. The purpose of this study is to make clear whether belief in afterlife has a reductional function of death anxiety or not in our society. In study 1, studies in Christian culture were reviewed critically, and investigations were made on the death anxiety and death perspectives of undergraduate students and their parents. In study 2, the multidimensional structure of attitudes toward afterlife and death was studied, considering the Japanese mentality. In study 3, the effect of death anxiety on belief in afterlife was experimentally investigated on the base of study 1 and 2. The above studies made clear that belief in afterlife is strongly related to death anxiety, and it diminishes death anxiety for religious people, but it is not true for nonreligious people.