Highly religious patients fight to live longer

[Christa]

A new study on patients with advanced cancer found that those who used their religious faith to cope with their illness were far more likely to want doctors to do everything possible to keep them alive than less religious patients.

Patients with a high level of "positive" religious coping – seeking God's love and care – were three times more likely than others to receive intensive life-prolonging treatment in their last week of life, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"People think that spiritual patients are more likely to say their lives are in God’s hands – 'Let what happens happen' – but in fact we know they want more aggressive care," said Holly G Prigerson, the study’s senior author and director of the Center for Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, according to The New York Times.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/highly.religious.patients.fight.to.live.longer/22820.htm

You would have thought they would be in a hurry to go to Heaven.

Isn't it interfering in their god's wishes if they want aggressive treatment?

Just sayin' ...

[ClearPresentDanger]

1. interesting...

[Strong Atheist]

18. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[sui generis]

2. fear of dying

seems to underlie the psychological need for an afterlife. Reality is, our bodies know that whatever the state of being dead is, it isn't remarkably different from being asleep and not dreaming, and most of us do that every night.

Mostly, the fear of death is the fear of pain on the way to being dead.

Ironic that people who need the afterlife the most seem to avoid it the hardest.

[Locrian]

3. removal of themselves from the natural order

Fear of the afterlife, wanting to play god, whatever.

They separate themselves from nature - from the natural order and inevitable.

Instead of seeing it as part of the process of life, its some sort of weird fantasy world filled with demons, kings, etc.

[Warpy]

4. I always found that the ones who professed to love Jesus the most

were the least motivated to meet him when the time came. They insisted on heroics lasting beyond all reason and often their passing was a miserable, fearful one.

The more quietly religious had a much easier time of it.

[MineralMan]

5. They know, deep down, that when they're gone, they're gone.

People often say they believe things they don't actually believe. When it gets down to the core of things, they find that they don't really believe that stuff.

On the other hand, disbelievers already know there's no magical Jebus who's going to sweep them away to streets of gold. They know that death is the end of their existence, and have long since made peace with that eventuality.

That's my observation, for what it's worth.

[MorningGlow]

16. I disagree

I have a very Catholic aunt who is fascinated by, but also terrified of, death. She moved heaven and earth (so to speak) to keep her husband from dying of prostate cancer (she failed). Since then, she's become obsessed with death. And yet whenever anyone she knows dies, even those who have lived good, long, healthy, fulfilling lives, she thinks it's a tragedy.

But she DOES believe in heaven. Problem is, she also believes in hell. And she's repeated "Lord I am not worthy" at mass so frequently that she believes it. She's terrified that no matter how good she is, no matter how loving God is supposed to be, she (or whoever dies) is going to end up in hell for eternity.

I find it sad, actually.

The other spanner in the works when it comes to people's perception of death is that we get so wrapped up in the drama that is this existence, the life we're living now, that we don't want to leave it. It's like we're addicted to a soap opera and get really pissed if somebody turns off the TV in the middle of an episode.

[mrcheerful]

6. Well thats just a part of their overall hypocrisy, in the 50's when open heart surgery was first

starting to show positive results the religious out there called for a stop to doctors playing "god". Now they are first in line for open heart procedures. For all their religious dogma about life after death, when their time is near, they want nothing to do with death and will do anything just to prolong their life no matter how miserable they are. That might also play into their suffering for jebus crap too.

I watched 6 loved ones die from cancer. 5 were non believers, 1 was a life long christian ( my father, though he wasn't a rabid christian, even though he knew my views on religion, he never once pushed me to follow his beliefs ) and all 6 of them accepted the end the same, they refused life prolonging efforts. They gathered their loved ones together and said their farewells before they were incapable of saying anything. They made amends to those they wronged then passed on.

Now the fundie friends and their families were a very different story. First they wanted the newest and best treatments they could find, then they had prayer sessions in their homes seeking divine intervention, instead of accepting that it was "gods" will that the end was near, they were vengeful and self pitying. Instead of making amends with those they wronged, it was pity party time and rants about life not being fair, those "other" people did worse then they did and why wasn't "god" punishing them.

This is my personal experience and this is what I have seen time after time with the born agains. The way they lived their lives was exactly the same as they ended their lives, if they were nasty vengeful folks in life they went out the same way. My opinion about this is, we all go out the way we lived. Like my uncle said on his death bed, screw it life is a struggle and now I can rest, though my fundie relations tried to claim that he found "god" at the end, I never once heard him mention "god" and I was with him right up till they carried him out of the house. One sure bet, you will never get out of life alive so its best to accept we only have a limited time and to make the best of it.

[theoldman]

7. People with a positive attitude live longer.

It has nothing to do with religion. Lots of Chinese have no religion at all and they live a long life. They have a very positive attitude. Buddhist and Jews don't go to heaven and they also live a long life.

[rrneck]

8. It depends on how religion has been used by the person dying.

Was it a way to better understand themselves and others, or was it a membership in a special club or tribe that made them feel privileged? Were they looking for understanding or perks?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. That is not necessarily true of all religious people

I know a lot of exceptions, and the people in my church tend to say that they DON'T want heroic measures.

It could be that people who are afraid they'll go to hell want heroic measures, but personally, I haven't seen it among my liberal Christian types. Quite the contrary.

[charlie]

12. In the case of Biblical fundies

I think it's probably larger than fear of hell. After a lifetime of preferring certainty over reality, holding to Truth by Assertion, they don't have much grounding in knowledge from experience and honest self-examination when faced with death, the one uncertainty that won't be banished by fiat. I really suspect it's all of their doubts tumbling out of the closet at once, because they wouldn't give them any consideration earlier. So they come their end with neither the fortitude of faith or acceptance of their finality.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Especially if they belong to one of those churches that teaches

that believing in Jesus will solve all their problems. They suddenly realize that there will be no Lazarus episode for them.

[charlie]

15. They've certainly turned him into a fetish doll

In the Name of Jeee-zus I CLAIM this!

Cargo cultists, the lot of them, scouring the Book for rules and incantations. Because only good bureaucrats Go to Heaven. And getting into heaven is JOB ONE.

[Jokerman]

10. Maybe it is guilt and fear of punishment.

It's possible that they are afraid that they are not worthy of eternal rewards and fear eternal damnation.

I mean, most of us have done things in our lives that we aren't proud of. If I thought that some "sin" from my past could cause me to be sent to hell, I'd fight pretty damn hard to live.

Just because you believe in god, heaven and hell doesn't necessarily mean you know your place in heaven is reserved.

Purely speculation from someone who has never believed in any of this.

[Occam Bandage]

11. I think adopting a negative spin is premature.

Without further evidence, I don't see why "they're terrified" should be any more or any less likely than "their faith gives them strength to keep fighting."

[humblebum]

14. I for one have always found the atheistic view to be more conducive to life after death

After all, If Jesus did resurrect from the dead, it probably was the result of a random chemical reaction in his dead body. We know, of course, that is how all life began so it only seems natural. Nothing supernatural about it.

[Silent3]

17. I seriously hope that you know your comment is pure snark...

...and that you don't actually have such a poor understanding of evolution and scientific views on the origin of life to equate a multi-billion year planetary-wide process with no predetermined outcome to a spontaneous restoration of a three-day dead human body to sudden full, robust physical and mental health.

[humblebum]

19. Certainly not, I was being sarcastic and I probably should

have made that clearer. I do believe that the "origin of life" was "a multi-billion year planetary-wide process", but with a predetermined outcome. But hey, that's just me. I adhere more to the Integrationist philosophies instead of the Positivistic points of view.

[DeSwiss]

20. But, but, but....

...they only want to survive longer so they can tell others all about Jebus! :sarcasm: