[Pete H]

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I'd rather die than live forever in heaven.

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I think maybe you missed the part where heaven is the Eternal Presence of God. You seem to think that it's an Eternal Church Meeting or something. Regardless of your position on the existence of a Creator, His Presence would be something to actively seek were it available.

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Only thing I think about heaven/paradise/whatever you want to call it that you're supposed to live there forever.

Living forever would be torment no matter where (or how) you are as eventually it's the same thing millenia after millenia.

I remember reading that someone has once said (something like) this about eternity:

"Take one grain of sand from Sahara every billionth year. When you've emptied Sahara, eternity hasn't even started."

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At least of people I've met the religious people seem to be more afraid of dying than non-religious people.

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I think that by "religious" you mean Christian, and that Christians are exactly like everyone else, because they are people. It would be nice if being Christian actually changed something but it doesn't. Divorce rates are as high or higher among church-going people as non. Depression and suicide are evenly divided among Christians and non-Christians. In such an environment the Fear of Death is of course just as strong or stronger than outside of it.

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I meant all religious people (who believe in some form of afterlife), but as this forum is biased towards christianity I used the terms used in that religion.

Besides you missed the point. I claimed that being religious increases the likelihood of one fearing the death. In other words being religious changes something (or those who are different are more likely to become religious).

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I think the first religion was invented pretty soon after humans became aware of their mortality.

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You wouldn't be the first person to make this observation. Some would say that the first religion was invented by the first guy to figure out that he could have political (tribal) power by performing as an intermediary to The Gods.

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So?

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Dying is extremely difficult concept to understand and even harder to accept. Going on denial is standard and among the religion we got ourselves eternal life.

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Dying is easy to understand, but nearly impossible to accept. We are talking about the annihilation of the egoic self, something that the egoic self is loathe to cozy up to.

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I think it's not that easy to really understand that at one point you (and your mind) exists and then suddenly you don't exist anymore.

But wether it's about understanding or accepting, it doesn't matter. The point is that people needed some way to live after death and the concept of soul came to rescue.

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You seem to have a condescending attitude toward religion though. Lots of people have this attitude that they are superior because they "don't need" religion and that those who do are weak and superstitious. Sometimes, they are just grateful, compassionate, community-minded people in touch with the current of selflessness running through them, or searching for meaning in life, or trying to find peace and harmony in their day-to-day existence.

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I'm not the biggest fan of organized religions, but this isn't about them. We are talking about religious people and wether they are more likely to fear of dying or not. And the reasons why.

I have nothing against religious people. If belief comforts you and/or makes you happier, there's nothing wrong in that.

It's just extremely difficult for me to understand why would anyone want to live forever, but one reason is probably because the concept of eternity is impossible to understand for humans. Those who want to live forever, just want to be alive tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.