Omega

I had pieces of a philosophical discussion today with a coworker in between trips running food out to tables.

Gratuitous stock photo approximation of my countenance at work.

My coworker, a fellow atheist, was talking to another fellow atheist at work (am I lucky or what?) about how research suggests that Christians disdain atheists because we remind them of their own mortality. Upon hearing this, my query was "Don't most religions' reasons for existence center around the idea of death?" to which he replied, "Ah, but they have 'eternal life' to look forward to afterwards." Fair enough, I thought. 

As I ran a table's food out, another thought entered my mind. If Christians have eternal life to look forward to why is their mortality, for them, something to fear? I pointed this out to my coworker, and he remarked that it's the thought of the utter cessation of existence that truly strikes fear in the hearts of people of faith. I suppose we may remind them that this is a possibility. 

However, I am still not quite satisfied with this answer. If a person of faith so enmeshed in their own beliefs truly thinks that they have a special place reserved for them in heaven, why would the thought of the utter cessation of existence bother them? To (attempt to) answer this question, I will delve into the research mentioned previously. 

The research abstract states that for the first experiment from which their conclusions were drawn, people of faith who were given "subtle reminders of death" increased social distancing and distrust of atheists. In the second experiment, it was apparent that asking people of faith to think about atheism increased their ability to access what were called "implicit death thoughts." 

Perhaps for people of faith, even reminders of death (without any explicit overtones of a complete cessation of existence accompanying these reminders) cause them to acknowledge in their minds possibilities which aren't "in line" with their beliefs, creating uncomfortable cognitive dissonance. The easiest way to relieve this dissonance is to "jump back" to the original belief, and by extension reject those who hold the conflicting belief. 

I have actually seen this among groups of Christians as well. An old pastor at the church I used to attend before my de-conversion proposed in one sermon a theory of his that hell was actually the complete annihilation of one's soul. Not only did many members reject this theory, but the church elders fired him.