Posted: May 22, 2011 9:42 am
It occurs to me that - based on observations when my father-in-law was at death's door and suffering horribly - some believers may actually be afraid to die because of what they fear will happen to them when they get to the other side. Thus they may cling so tenaciously to a life that, like his, had become unbearable. He was a lapsed catholic who, while he wasn't a really bad person, believed he had broken many of the rules, and he actually said to one of his daughters that he was scared because of this. 