Fear of death more prevalent among intelligent design believers

I have long thought that those who believe in magic, miracles, and nonsense like “God made me,” would be less uncomfortable with the prospect of death. After all everyone I know who believes in intelligent design believes in God and a life after death of hanging around with God, basking in his glory and other silliness.

So, the results of this study are confusing to me. The religious insist that faith is the essential element of their beliefs, so why does one of the most basic belief not provide them comfort.

Quite frankly, I found myself envying the believers from to time because they don’t hesitate to tell you how lucky they are and how unlucky we atheists are. The thought of death, like death itself, is rarely a happy experience. It is often filled with great pain and terrible fear, usually the fear of the unknown, so again shouldn’t the faithful be less trepidatious?

When you have finished reading the summary of the study let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Here is the summary from Raw Story:

Research conducted at the University of British Columbia and Union College found that people’s death anxiety was associated with support of intelligent design and rejection of evolutionary theory. Death anxiety also influenced those in the study to report an increased liking for Michael Behe, a prominent proponent of intelligent design, and an increased disliking for Richard Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist. The findings suggest that people are motivated to believe in intelligent design and doubt evolutionary theory because of unconscious psychological motives. The study was lead by UBC Psychology Assistant Professor Jessica Tracy and and UBC psychology PhD student Jason Martens. It was published in the March 30 issue of the open access journal PLoS ONE. “Our results suggest that when confronted with existential concerns, people respond by searching for a sense of meaning and purpose in life,” Tracy said. “For many, it appears that evolutionary theory doesn’t offer enough of a compelling answer to deal with these big questions.” The research consisted of five studies with 1,674 U.S. and Canadian participants of different ages and educational, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds.

More about the study here…