How Religion Impacts our Beliefs about Death and Funeral Practices Questions

 

 

This discussion provides us with the importance of understanding multi-cultural influences on funeral practices and beliefs on death and dying. Cultural beliefs and religion both provide us with a basic view of dying and guide us throughout our lives.

• How religion impacts our beliefs about death and funeral practices.
• How near-death or afterlife experiences are influenced by an individual’s religious background, cultural beliefs and family traditions.

Please support your discussion with Scholarly references and respond to a minimum of two of your classmates, addressing their post in a substantive manner.

Peer 1

Religion is a set of values and beliefs relating to the universe’s purpose, cause, and nature. People’s religious beliefs may impact their perception of the afterlife, death, funeral practices, and the dying process. Several religions, such as Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity, believe in the afterlife, reducing their uncertainty and anxiety about dying. The afterlife, which refers to any state of being or state of mind that transpires after a person’s death, has various forms in distinct religions but has the same purposes. Generally, having a conviction in an afterlife concept may dictate how people conduct themselves when they are alive.

On the other hand, almost all religions have meaningful and specific customs and traditions around funerals. From procedures for dressing and cleaning the dead to funeral service features to memorial occasions, the system that religion offers around handling a death guides the bereaved survivors and accomplishes religious obligation. Religions have to follow a specific protocol during funerals to allow the dead to transition into life after death seamlessly. Most religions believe that failure to follow their funeral protocols will hinder this transition.

Additionally, believing in some form of existence after death may reduce the uncertainty difference because believers forestall and have an idea of life in the future/ after death. According to San Filippo (2006), religious beliefs offer references to elucidate the experiences perceived as intricate to explain and attributed to a near-death encounter. Furthermore, numerous reported near-death encounters seem to align with several religious and philosophical theories of what is expected in the afterlife, such as union with celestial beings and the existence of hell and heaven. According to Gire (2014), different cultural traditions perceive death as transitioning from life to other forms of existence. Other cultures suggest that death is a continuous interaction between the living and the dead, and some cultures believe in a circular model of multiple rebirths and deaths. However, other cultural traditions perceive death as the end, with no form of life/ existence occurring after a person dies (Gire, 2014). These diverse ideas about death and the afterlife have an evident impact on the cultural members’ lifestyles, their preparedness/ willingness to die for a given cause, the extent to which they fear death, the funeral rituals’ nature, and their mourning and grief expressions.

Peer 2

How religion impacts our beliefs about death and funeral practices.

This goes back to the Neanderthals and the roman empires, and possibly even before that. Religion goes in many ways depending on where you at in the world. Religion such as Buddhism, especially the Tibetans, believe that any living being needs preserving, so once one passes away, they are brought onto a mountain high in the sky, “a sacred place,” and allow vultures to feast on the dead. This is considered a last final good deed. In Christianity, it is said that one must be buried into the ground and worn black. This is very common here in the United States. Although one city celebrates once life with a jazz funeral, in colorful clothing, instruments playing, and lots of dancing, is New Orleans, LA. Here In the U.S., the more elaborate and fancy once casket is, the bigger the headstone and the bigger the life celebration it is, the wealthy one is assumed to be, where Jewish communities believe 0once funeral should never be a flaunt of how wealthy one is or what their social; standings were, Leming, M., & Dickinson, G. (2018).

How near-death or afterlife experiences are influenced by an individual’s religious background, cultural beliefs, and family traditions.

When I spoke about the Buddha’s belief that any life is sacred and that one last deed is to feed the surviving animals, this also means that your soul can re-incarnate if there is something left to do for you. The goal is not to come back because that means you have accomplished everything, but you can come back as a human or animal if you do. Depending on what cultural beliefs one belongs to, differences are visual. Christians believe that one must follow God’s way so that when they pass, they go to heaven and live in a rich, pain-free, superior world. In Mexico, the Zinacantecos cut off a chicken’s head. They put it in a bowl of broth, alongside the passed on corps, in the belief that the chicken will carry the person’s inner soul, and after a black dog carries the soul across the river, Leming, M., & Dickinson, G. (2018). If they reside in the United States, they are limited on what is allowed even though it is a dead person’s last wish, and we are restricted. Burials and the afterlife depend on one culture, each tradition, each tribe, and each family, but one thing is alike in each, we all must die.

Assignment

LEARNING ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

Utilizing the worksheet below, develop detailed paragraphs that focus on the first main point for your final paper. For each section, a minimum of one fully developed paragraph is required. Each paragraph should include at least one in-text APA citation that provides support for the topic.

• Must include in-text citations in APA format
• Must integrate information from your sources rather than simply inserting it.
• Must use at least two scholarly sources. While your textbook can be utilized as a source, it does not count towards your two sources for this assignment. Two new sources should be utilized each week to meet the minimum of eight required sources for the final. By finding and supporting your material with these sources each week, you will have the research necessary to construct a strong Final Paper.

1. Facing Death

A. Discuss Glaser and Strauss’s four awareness contexts(chap 5.2) Which do you think most often exists in a medical setting with dying patients?

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B. Based on the discussions in the textbook, what is considered to be an “appropriate death”?

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C. Name and briefly describe the five stages of the dying process, as researched by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
(Use the space below to complete this section.)

 

D. Why high school and college-aged students have a higher level of death anxiety than junior high school students.
(Use the space below to complete this section.)

E. What does death mean to you? What are your personal anxieties with regard to death and dying?

(Use the space below to complete this section.)

2.Reference List (utilizing full APA citations)

(Use the space below to complete this section.)