The Reformation

There are various religious movements that have used the internet extensively, and in many ways through their use of cyberspace, transformed religion. Therefore, there has been a reformation of religious customary and traditional values. Religious sites on the net have unfortunately received little academic attention. Yet in the midst of this, faith communities are being built, bonds and connections are forming, which extensively re-alter traditional and orthodox religious identities and practices.

Some websites are orientated towards active discussion boards and theological debate- ( http://www.churchlog.wordpress.com/ ) whilst others seek to create an online religious experience through prayer,( http://www.sacredspace.com/ ) meditation, ( http://www.innerexplorations.com/ ) evangelicism and spiritual discussion.

Religion is not just in the church anymore, it’s in the home, in the office, in the school, in the library, and anywhere that the computer can be seen. Therefore, should we be fearing death or concentrate on fearing the power of cyberspace? .

look inside !

After looking through biblical scripture i came across various passages in relation to hell, death and dieing. A few are listed below so in your own time have a quick look and this will give you further ideas of how religion impacts on our unconcious feelings of the afterlife. For this blog i particularly looked at Matthew and Reveltions, yet of course there are many others.

Revelation chp 20 vs11-15

Revelation chp 1 vs 18

Matthew chp 5 vs 22

Matthew chp 5 vs 29

Matthew chp 16 vs 18

Matthew chp 10 vs 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body and soul in hell

The passage here partucularly confused me. Its message seems to be. Dont fear death because there is an afterlife, however fear the afterlife which may be hell.

What do you think of thses passages?

Do you think biblical conceptions on such isues are really confusing?

Because i most certainly do.

The message of the bible is never clear, yet it becomes even more blurred when it is transformed into a virtual enviroment, on a screen and overshadowed by an array of interpreation and opinion.

Therfore, looking inside the sacred texts is personally of little use in answering questions surrounding death.

see

http://www.thinkexist.com/bible/quotes

http://www.worldofquotes.com

http://www.quotationspage.com

The three websites above all provide information on 'what it says in the bible' nevertheless, the language,format and style of all three can be very different. Just the use of one different word can alter the whole meaning and expression of a passage.

We are all ill !

I was astounded to come across an array of websites that all claim to combat the fear of death. http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/fearofdeat/asp “Trusted, effective treatment for the fear of death”, they assert. Offering a life-time guarantee to its customers, with a success rate close to 100%, these websites do not use hypnosis but rather trains the unconscious mind to feel safe and teaches it to respond appropriately, cultivating positive thoughts.

WHAT? I thought when I read this.

Surely with its home study CD program, these sites are making money out of a religious conception, playing on an adverse religion for profit. Change That’s Right Now CTRN, is not a religious organisation, they work exclusively by telephone open 9 am until midnight.
This must be a very profitable business.

Yet, I urge that the fear of death should not be treated as some sort of illness or phobia, that it is entirely natural and does not need overcoming as cyberspace would have you believe.
Thantaphobia is the common term for exploring the fear of death , yet is it really a phobia? Or is it just mankind in a real situation looking at reality and their life hereafter. Surely it can‘t cause so much distress that it requires the help of an expert.

What do you think? Do you think the fear of death is that potent and dominant, that it actually influences your life, in some negative way? The producers of such websites think so.
http://www.aikido.com/overcomethefearofdeath This article I came across claims that if you follow seven simple steps your anxious fear of passing away will be conquered.

The steps are as follows:

1) Understand that it’s a cycle.
2) Know that people wont forget you.
3)Talk to someone.
4) Live life the way that you are supposed to.
5) Don’t worry until you need to.
6) Be optimistic.
7) Realise that there is hope.

The point that struck me was number 5- don’t worry until you need to. Oh so there is something to worry about then. Not as liberating as it first appears. And when exactly do I need to start worrying?. Such therapeutic talk outrages me. Be optimistic? About what? About dieing or about living?. Understand that it’s a cycle!. Ok I understand that I must die in order for some one else to live and be born , yet its not very cathartic or energizing. Such curative and remedial submissions are all very flamboyant and on a individual level productive, yet beneath the surface are they beneficial and salutary.?. Moreover, are they justified?.

A Standard Control System

Religion heightens our fear of death !

Is hell just a part of the standard control system?

Perhaps religion uses the fear of death as a tool to keep people ‘in line’. Http://mexic.blogspot.com/2007.03/usingthefearofhell. Here, I agree with the ex-Christian Kevin Perry that perhaps the fear of hell is implemented into religion by Christian fundamentalists, to have an orderly obedient congregation.

Yet surely this is all very anti-Christian.

After looking at various websites e.g. http://www.news-medical.net it becomes apparent that many people believe that religion can often increase ones fear of death rather than ease it, particularly if they have not followed a religious life. It results in a distinguishing comparison of extrinsic and intrinsic religious orientation.. Therefore, the message is : be religious all of your life and you will not fear death. BUT, if you choose religion at the end of your life it will make you fear death even more so.

“The findings are important, because many people mistakenly believe that bringing up the subject of religion with the elderly is helpful… when the opposite is actually true for people who are extrinsically religious“ .

I disagree:
I believe as children we have little fear of death as our naïve and innocent nature surpasses such thoughts. Yet as time progresses so do our fears in relation to what we see and hear. Images of hell are used predominately in order to heighten our fear of death, and they are thrust upon us regularly through differing mediums.

For instance, look at the film Constantine, An American film directed by Francis Lawren in 2005 http://www.constantinewarnerbros.com Starring Keanu Reeves at the anti-hero, this production is based on the comic book Hell Blazer , in which Constantine has literally been to hell and back. The image of hell given in the film is of a red fiery sky, loneliness, torture, fire, smoke, ruined buildings, burnt out cars, and chaos. For me the film depicts the very nature of the Christian ideology of hell. The imagery used is enough to make anyone fear death. A very morbid, broody and sinister outlook was given here, as Constantine battles with demons in order to prevent hell being created on earth.

Religion therefore, influenced the content of this film, which in turn influences our conception of hell, which in turn heightens our fear of death.
Religious ideology prevails not just in the cyber world but in music in art, In literature in the radio, and in film. Its influence is paramount to our condensed and often hidden and subconscious anxieties in relation to death.

I am Religion, i will protect you !

Perhaps, religion as an institution and faith, as well as religious organisations on the internet can ease our fear of death. (That is assuming that our fear needs overcoming). There are various websites which claim to help people in their battle against their anxieties towards passing away, many of them Christian. http://www.walking-wounded.net . Such Christian help websites use copious amounts of biblical passages in the hope of giving a sense of reassurance. For instance Psalm 23 verse 4 which states “ Even though I walk through the darkest valley… I will not fear , for you are with me and you comfort me”. As well as doing this they write absurd statements such as “God is in control, he can be trusted”. This does nothing to make me feel better, does it you?. If God is in control of my death, and I am not then I will smoke, drink and become grossly overweight. Its interesting how on these sites, it is an transcendent being which holds the key to our demise. Whereas, on others www.deathclock.com, our hour of death is determined by the social factors and health issues that we incur throughout life.

Nevertheless, Christian support websites http://www.everystudent.com/wires/inevitable.html offer testimonies, prayer requests and testimonies, in an endeavour to comfort and relieve us with death, which for them is just another ingredient of life, another journey. Is this the function and purpose of religion? To provide safeguards against the trepidation of the end ? . The emphasis tends to be that in order to overcome ones fear of death they must find peace with God and the bible. Therefore, if we read Romans 6 verse 23 which reads “ The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”, we will not fear death. However, this is a far reaching claim as in order to do this we have to have a pre-understanding and belief in a life after death.

I can get to hell through my garden shed !

There are websites which catalogue potential gateways and entrances to hell http://www.entrances2hell.co.uk, in . and around the United Kingdom. If you find a particular gateway, you are told to submit it and scientists from America and experts from Europe will investigate your submissions. Many people have done so, the site them names such locations quite strangely as ‘ Banu’, ‘ Vowo mi’, ‘wash’ and ‘tekker’, such names to me mean nothing. Yet the so called expertises and founders of the website claim that these spaces, are gateways to another world. We see them everyday, we might pass them or even touch them and not know what they are. What is catalogued in their findings so far are images of doors, gates, holes in walls, sheds, arches, even a pile of rubble.

This caused me to contemplate on my earlier discussion, (The previous blog entry) of digging in my back garden, if I submitted a picture of this to the site, would they regard it as an entrance to hell?. The website, additionally provides a set of safety rules, as entrances to hell for them, can be extremely dangerous places. You can buy these safety rules in a poster format. The rules are as follows:

1) Never go into an entrance to hell.
2)Always approach an entrance on your stomach.
3)Don’t shout at the devil
4)Wear rubber gloves 3-4 days after your visit

Is this just a joke website or are the people involved in this ‘for real’?. Please have a look and get back to me. For me, it appeared to be the work of an over enthusiastic and over exaggerated mind. I sighed in disbelief and humour at the childishness and boredom that must of consumed its creators. Its quite light hearted and humorous, therefore, like many other sites claim, is it just for fun? Yet, I urge that concepts such as heaven and hell are religious concepts, thus, is it justified and ethical for people to make fun of it, in this sense the internet has become a tool for religious ideological mockery.

Heaven is in the sky and hell is under the ground

Go to http://Google.com images and type in the word ‘hell’, go do it now in a separate tab then come back to me….

What did you get?. More than likely you got images of fire, demons, devils, anguish, people screaming out in pain, torment, inferno, brimstone, blood, forks, cannibalism, and quite likely anti-Christ motifs.


Now, go back to that tab and change the word hell to the word heaven.

Now you will see, blue skies, clouds, stairs, landscape, beautiful gardens and rainbows.
Yet were do all these images immerge, and do they contribute to our fear of death?
We are inevitably more likely to fear hell rather than heaven, and the images that you have seen are the exact reasoning for this. Our teaching, our culture, the media , the books we read , the films we watch, and the internet we explore, all conjure up imagery in our minds that simplistically that hell is red and heaven is blue.

For instance if you visit the site http://www.apuritansmind.com, then click on the link ‘Do you hate Jesus’, you will be immediately presented with an image of a man, mouth open screaming in pain and surrounded by flames. This is the message of the internet, that hell is a ‘a place of darkness, where there is weeping and the gnashing of teeth’ , an empty space void of happiness. If this is what we are teaching, then without doubt there is going to be a innate fear of death!. This morbid and dark site presents its viewers with a warning: believe in Christ or this is your fate. This ultimatum, is perhaps orthodox yet I propose very unjust and malevolent. Such sites may have an audience, or even followers, yet I don’t feel their content should be displayed as it is: as truth !!.


I remember once back in primary school, when a rather strange substitute teacher, was discussing death. His shrewd and absurd comment, which I think now, was meant to be funny, sticks in mind. He said ‘ if people don’t want to go to hell, why do they bury themselves six foot close to it ?’. For his sake, I am glad that no other teacher heard it. Yet, it had an impact on me. A few days later, when I was playing with a group of friends in my back garden, I found a hole in the grass, I lifted it up just to see dirt. With my mother not watching, I urged my friends to start digging. They were more than willing. Yet I did not reveal my reasoning, that I was looking for hell!. Over the next half an hour I completely destroyed my garden. Not only was my mother furious, once she had discovered the little tribe of archaeologists, but I was completely dissatisfied that I hadn’t found hell.


What I am trying to say here, is that the things we teach the next generation about life after death could have a profound impact on them. And still to this day after nearly completing a theology degree, when I think of these concepts, I still think of hell under the ground and heaven in the sky. And indeed moreover, it creates a sense of apprehension and fear of death. But then what should we teach children about the afterlife?. Perhaps, we should just bombard them with all such imagery, scare them into religious obedience and hope they grow into mature adults. Or should such imagery be avoided? in order to combat the fear of death.