Does belief in afterlife reduct the death anxiety?

对现代人来说，来世似乎与现实的日常生活没有任何联系。既然证明来世的存在是不可能的，那么断言来世的存在就会被嘲笑。大多数人可能认为来世只不过是现代社会习惯理性思维的迷信。但自20世纪80年代以来，科学主义的有害影响随处可见，精神导向在年轻人中盛行。他们的取向是严肃的还是有趣的并不重要。重要的是神秘主义的再现。本研究的目的是明确来世信仰是否在我们的社会中具有减少死亡焦虑的功能。在研究1中，批判性地回顾了基督教文化的研究，并对本科生及其父母的死亡焦虑和死亡观点进行了调查。在研究2中，考虑到日本人的心态，研究了来世和死亡态度的多维结构。研究3在研究1和研究2的基础上，对死亡焦虑对来生信仰的影响进行了实验研究。上述研究表明，相信来世与死亡焦虑有很强的关系，对于有宗教信仰的人来说，相信来世会减少死亡焦虑，而对于没有宗教信仰的人来说，则不是这样。

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.