Worldview formation and death anxiety: Explaining atheism after a near-death experience
Principal Investigator
Dr. Alex Fry
Department of Social Sciences and Social Work, University of Bournemouth
Start and end dates: 3 April 2023 – 30 June 2024
Award: £17,443
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are common amongst those coming close to death and profoundly impact how they make sense of the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have come close to death in the UK, indicating a likely increase in NDEs and a wider awareness of human mortality. Psychologists have found that death anxiety motivates individuals to make sense of the world in the pursuit of literal or symbolic immortality. Sociologists have shown that persons draw on culturally dominant belief systems to inform their own. In the UK, this includes the technological worldview and self-spiritualities. The first of these refers to the use of purely scientific information for explaining the world, whereas the second refers to individualised and eclectic forms of religious and/or spiritual beliefs and practices. The tenets of these belief systems can be shared by two groups of atheists: (i) metaphysical naturalists (who do not believe in any supernatural phenomena); and (ii) non-theists (those who specifically do not believe in a theistic god) respectively.
There has been little research on death anxiety as a motivator in seeking to understand the world and humanity’s place within it amongst atheists. Even less research does so whilst paying attention to the diversity that exists within atheism. Studies that explore how death anxiety and culturally dominant belief systems shape atheists’ attempts to make sense of the world are also absent. The current context provides the opportunity to address this dearth in knowledge and underscores the importance of understanding how atheists attempt to make sense of life after a NDE, as well as the motivation for doing so.
To address this gap in knowledge, this project draws on interviews with atheists who have had a NDE to explore whether death anxiety motivates metaphysical naturalists’ and non-theists’ attempts to make sense of the world and the extent to which dominant UK belief systems shape their attempt to do so after a NDE. In addition to reporting the research findings in a journal article, this project will also engage with groups that support those who have had a NDE with the aim of providing evidence based information to assist how such groups support atheists seeking to make sense of the world in light of their NDE.
