Does belief in afterlife reduct the death anxiety?

在现代人看来，来世似乎与真实的日常生活毫无关系。由于无法证明来世的存在，对来世存在的断言也就成了笑柄。在习惯了理性思维的现代社会，大多数人可能会认为来世不过是迷信。但自20世纪80年代以来，科学主义的有害影响随处可见，精神取向在年轻人中流行起来，不管他们的取向是严肃的还是有趣的。本研究的目的是探讨在我们的社会中，相信来世是否具有减少死亡焦虑的功能。研究一回顾了基督教文化的研究，并对大学生及其父母的死亡焦虑和死亡观进行了调查。研究二，探讨了死亡焦虑的概念，并对死亡焦虑的概念进行了分析。本研究考虑到日本人的心理，对来世和死亡的态度的多维结构进行了研究。在研究3中，在研究1和研究2的基础上，本研究探讨了死亡焦虑对来世信念的影响。来世与死亡焦虑密切相关，它减少了宗教人士的死亡焦虑，但对非宗教人士来说并非如此。

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.