Week 13: Religious and Spiritual Aspects of Death and Dying

Question 1

Passengers who are alive are referred to as ______ on airplanes

Answer 1

Souls

Question 2

What are 4 therapeutic rituals?

Answer 2

1. rituals of continuity (continuing bond)
2. rituals of transition (for them and for us)
3. rituals of reconciliation (to ask forgiveness)
4. rituals of affirmation (to thank the deceased for his or her life)

Question 3

Explain the thoughts on if death is a door or a wall

Answer 3

• Ancient greeks and the immortality of the soul
• Plato saw souls as being immortal (always was always will be)
• Humanist tradition sees death as the end
• Cryonic suspension

Question 4

What percentage of people feels a religious component in a funeral in 2019?

Answer 4

35%

Question 5

What is the name given to the room where the body is placed?

Answer 5

Chapel

Question 6

Some memorial cards have what psalm on them

Answer 6

23rd

Question 7

Religion provides what?

Answer 7

A means to reestablish the social order challenged by death

Question 8

What is considered a life centered tradition?

Answer 8

Judaism

Question 9

What are some traditional burial customs for judaism?

Answer 9

• Forbids embalming, cremation, and autopsy (unless required by law)
• Body dressed in a shroud, men with prayer shawls
• Rending of garments to signify loss
• Shiv’ah, Sh-loshim, Yartzeit (anniversary/memorial candle)

Question 10

What are some traditional burial customs for judaism?

Answer 10

• Forbids embalming, cremation, and autopsy (unless required by law)
• Body dressed in a shroud, men with prayer shawls
• Rending of garments to signify loss
• Shiv’ah, Sh-loshim, Yartzeit (anniversary/memorial candle)
  > Kaddish prayer (essential part of mourning process) recited by mourners at a synagogue

Question 11

What do these 3 terms mean in jewish tradition?
Reform
Conservative
Orthodox

Answer 11

Reform: immortality of the soul
Conservative: respiration of the dead
Orthodox: Bodily resurrection and physical life after death

Question 12

Explain the jewish law and the afterlife

Answer 12

• Dead must be buried in the earth
• No cremated remains are interred in a jewish cemetery
• Cremation is viewed as a form of rejection of the resurrection
• A link of paganism
• According to judaism; the body is owned by the creator not the person (body is to be buried)
• Judaism also prohibits such things as self-mutilation or tattoos

Question 13

What are the traditional burial customs for islam

Answer 13

• Embalming, cremation, and autopsy are generally forbidden
• Body preparation (person of same gender) body placed in shroud
• Burial is simple and within 24 hours
• All people face a divine judgement
• Body position: body faces Mecca (doesn’t have to be casketed)
• Imam conducts the service
• Dead are mourned in mosques, not in funeral homes
• Close friend may climb into the grace and read instructions to dead in preparation of meeting with Allah
• a form of life remains in the grave

Question 14

What are the traditional burial customs for christianity?

Answer 14

• Immortality of the soul - resurrection of the body and divine judgment (reward is heaven or hell)
• Funeral service or mass of Christian burial
• within 2-4 days after death
• Allows embalming, autopsy, and cremation
• Wake/prayer service held night before
• Extreme unction: anointing with holy oils

Question 15

Saying a rosary during burial is what religions tradition?

Answer 15

Christianity

Question 16

What are the traditional burial customs for Hinduism?

Answer 16

• Humans (atman) an unborn, undying soul
• Soul is repeatedly reincarnated (it is right living that ends the rebirths and leads to peace)
• Key is to die with the name of god’s name on one’s lips
• Karma signifies the way of life
• Body Deposition: cremation and in some cases earth or water burial
• Cremation is a way of offering the body to God , the spirit is released
• Embalming does not occur. only people of the same caste can touch the body
• Mourning period, generally 10 days to a month

Question 17

What are 3 possibilities after death in hinduism?

Answer 17

1. Go to heaven and await rebirth
2. Immediately reborn into another body (not always human)
3. A state of eternal bliss with Brahmans

Question 18

What are the traditional burial customs for Buddhism?

Answer 18

• After death a person is either reborn (transmigration) or enters nirvana

Traditional customs
- Embalming is allowed. Cremation is preferred
- Family wears white clothing in addition to an armband or headband
- Chanting or singing
- Offerings of fruit and flowers
- Death is a transition from one form to another
- Monk will conduct the service

Question 19

What are the traditional burial customs for mormons?

Answer 19

• Life before birth (a forever backward and forward)
• Pre mortal existence
• Cremation is permitted, but not encouraged
• Officer of the church conducts the service
• Focus of funeral is on the bereaved not the deceased

Question 20

What are the 3 divisions of heaving in mormonism?

Answer 20

Celestial, terrestrial, telestial

Highest level (families continue) celestial marriages are performed for time and all eternity

Question 21

Explain the humanist funeral/memorial service secular

Answer 21

• Life centered funeral/memorial
• Focus is on the individual not religion
• Celebration of human goodness
• Officient conduct the funeral/memorial
• Funeral/memoial service will focus on the entire person good or bad
• Person lives on, not in terms of an afterlife, but in terms of their contributions to others

Question 22

What is reincarnation?

Answer 22

A person or animal in whom a particular soul is believed to have been reborn.