From the moment they’re born until the second they die:
Terminally ill cancer patients who drew comfort from religion were far more likely to seek aggressive, life-prolonging care in the week before they died than were less religious patients and far more likely to want doctors to do everything possible to keep them alive, a study has found.
The patients who were devout were three times as likely as less religious ones to be put on a mechanical ventilator to maintain breathing during the last week of life, and they were less likely to do any advance care planning, like signing a do-not-resuscitate order, preparing a living will or creating a health care proxy, the analysis found. […]
Aggressive life-prolonging care comes at a cost, however, in terms of both dollars and human suffering. Medicare, the government’s health plan for the elderly, spends about one-third of its budget on people who are in the last year of life, and much of that on patients at the very end of life.
Oh, look, science—which religious nuts dismiss in favor of batshitcrazy Biblical literalism—is prolonging these people’s lives. Never mind that God didn’t make that respirator on the seventh day, they loosely interpret the Bible to say they must employ all those expensive medical technologies to maintain their God-given life. And, I’m sorry, but how many other religious practices and teachings cost everyone else money? The entire Middle East is in a religious war; our Christian nation‘s recent crusade against dangerous Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq totals over $900 billion. The interminable Israel/Palestine conflict is another cash sucker. In the US, evangelical Christians oppose teaching kids about contraception, contributing to about $19 billion spent each year on unwanted pregnancies. And yesterday the Pope condemned the use of condoms, the best protection against STDs, as a method to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa (he said using condoms “increases the problem”).
Where are religious institutions spending their money? Oh, right, the Vatican is made of gold.
Some people would accuse me of marginalizing religion as a pyramid scheme perpetrated by charlatans seeking to accrue wealth and wage wars on people of a slightly different color on the other side of the border. And to those people, I’d say: Yeah, I was raised Catholic and that about sums it up.
Maybe they’re more scared of dying because they think they *could* go to hell. Non-believers are just on to the next adventure (or nothing).
This is hardly surprising. People often cling to religion, or at least black-and-white, fundamentalist interpretations of their religion, out of fear of the uncertainty. Its not shocking that someone who fears that the earth being older than 10,000 years means that they must be alone in the universe would also be afraid to die and put their faith to the ultimate test.
That’s sort of ironic, in that you would think that someone who believes in heaven wouldn’t be quite so reluctant to go there when their time comes. I would think that people who believe there is nothingness after death would be much more afraid of dying. I always thought one of religion’s main purposes was to comfort you in difficult times, and what more difficult time is there than the days before death?
I’ve noticed the same thing with fundier family members…they’re always the ones to freak out the most when death approaches, when you think they’d be thrilled they’re finally going to meet their Lord in Heaven.
but it’s not moral relativism when I do it.
YEAH!
excellent points, dominic.
bill maher in his film last year might have made these points if he’d thought of them. i think you (or somebody) should send him your post.
i was provoked when maher pointed out that, as groups, gays represent 2-3% of the u.s. population, blacks represent 10-12%, jews represent 3-5% and each of these groups wield significant political sway. “non-believers” or atheists represent 16-18% of the population and haven’t organized themselves in any politically significant way.
It seems to me like this is a logical consequence of the religious, soul-based perspective on life – all life is sacred, period – versus the rational, humanist perspective that values actual quality of life.
If life is life is life and all life must be preserved, then this kind of behavior does in fact make a sort of sense.
Now, that’s not why I think it happens this way, mind you, or at least not consciously. I think it’s much more probably based on simple fear. Folks who are afraid of ambiguity and death often turn to religion, or perhaps it’s religious upbringing that teaches them to fear ambiguity and death. Dunno. Either way the end result is that a lot of religious folks are afraid to die, as this data points out.
Of course they’re scared of death. They know that, by their rules, they’re going to hell.
@3 & 4,
It’s probably because those who are most vehemently religious (the ones that try to force it on everyone) are secretly unsure and frightened of their own faith. They are probably truly scared that there is no silly god, heaven, hell, spaghetti monster, anything.
I mean, look at the most vicious and outspoken homophobes… how many of them come out of the closet eventually?
It all has to do with the Karma that’s coming their way. “Christians” are coming back as anus warts. Muslims are coming back as nipples. And the Pope is coming back as turtle shit.
And when a scientific medical intervention works and prolongs their life significantly, they attribute it to magic.
It’s because most religious people are great big pussies.
…How did the one post today that was really about something (mildly) inflammatory wind up being the comment thread with no obnoxious trolling?
I think there should be a law: If you don’t believe in X, X, or X scientific theory then you can’t ues X, X, or X that comes from science.
If religious people were denied science based things, they would all die in a manner of days or finally admit that science *exists*
Man, it is a terrible, shameful thing that the Pope speaks for all Christians everywhere. I wish that I could have a different opinion than the Pope, but – he’s the Pope! No room for argument or disagreement. Christianity is a monolithic, undifferentiated mass.
Oh, and all Muslims are terrorists.
We are looked at as inhumane if we don’t put down an animal who is in pain and dying slowly, yet we (current society) label a doctor who tries to respect someones wishes and end their life humanely as a murderer.
Horseshit.
Rapture, PLEASE NOW GET THEM OUT OF HERE.
perk #3294623 of being an atheist: dying with at least a shred of dignity. woo!
I’d be interested in whether if religious/non-religious variability here is explainable in terms of a correlated variable – scientific understanding. Perhaps it just that scientific illiterates are less likely to understand the dire consequences of mechanical ventilators, etc.