A Closer Look at Some Myths About Death
THROUGHOUT history, man has stood
perplexed and apprehensive before the
dark prospect of death. What is more, fear
of death has been fueled by a mix of false
religious ideas, popular customs, and
ingrained personal beliefs. The problem
with fear of death is that it can paralyze
one’s ability to enjoy life and erode one’s
confidence that there is meaning to life.
Popular religion is especially
reprehensible for promoting a number of
popular myths regarding death. By
examining a few of these under the light of
Bible truth, see if your personal
perceptions about death can be clarified.
Myth 1: Death is the natural end of life.
“Death . . . is an integral part of our
lives,” says the book Death—The Final
Stage of Growth. Comments like this reflect
the belief that death is normal, the natural
ending of all living organisms. In turn, such
a belief has fostered a nihilistic philosophy
and opportunistic behavior in many.
But is death really the natural end of life?
Not all researchers believe so. For instance,
Calvin Harley, a biologist who studies
human aging, said in an interview that he
does not believe that humans “have a
program to die.” Immunologist William
Clark observed: “Death is not inextricably
intertwined with the definition of life.” And
Seymour Benzer, of the California Institute
of Technology, muses that “aging can be
better described not as a clock but as a
scenario, which we can hope to edit.”
When scientists study the design of
humans, they are baffled. They find that we
have been endowed with resources and
capabilities that far exceed the needs of
our 70- to 80-year life span. For example,
scientists have found that the human brain
has immense memory capacity. One
researcher estimated that our brain can
hold information that “would fill some
twenty million volumes, as many as in the
world’s largest libraries.” Some
neuroscientists figure that during an
average lifetime, a person uses only 1/100
of 1 percent (.0001) of his potential brain
capacity. It is appropriate to ask, ‘Why do
we have a brain with such a large capacity
when we utilize only a tiny fraction of it in
an average lifetime?’
Consider also how unnaturally humans
react to death! For the majority, the death
of a wife, a husband, or a child can be the
most upsetting experience of a lifetime.
People’s entire emotional makeup is often
jarred for a long time after the death of a
person dearly loved. Even those who claim
that death is natural to humans find it hard
to accept the idea that their own death will
mean the end of everything. The British
Medical Journal spoke of “a common
expert presumption that everybody wants
to live as long as possible.”
In view of man’s general reaction to
death, his amazing potential for
remembering and learning, and his inward
longing for eternity, is it not clear that he
was made to live? Indeed, God created
humans, not with death as the natural
outcome, but with the prospect of living on
indefinitely. Note what God set before the
first human pair as their future: “Be fruitful
and become many and fill the earth and
subdue it, and have in subjection the fish
of the sea and the flying creatures of the
heavens and every living creature that is
moving upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
What a wonderful, lasting future that is!

Myth 2: God takes people in death to be
with him.
A 27-year-old mother who was dying
and leaving three children behind told a
Catholic nun: “Don’t come in and tell me
this is God’s will for me. . . . I hate it when
somebody else tells me this.” Yet, this is
what many religions teach about death—
that God takes people to be near him.
Is the Creator really so cruel that he
would callously inflict death on us,
knowing that this breaks our hearts? No,
not the God of the Bible. According to
1 John 4:8, “God is love.” Note that it does
not say that God has love or that God is
loving, but it says that God is love. So
intense, so pure, so perfect is God’s love, so
thoroughly does it permeate his
personality and actions that he may rightly
be spoken of as the very personification of
love. This is not a God who takes people in
death to be near him.
False religion has left many confused as
to the whereabouts and condition of the
dead. Heaven, hell, purgatory, Limbo—
these and various other destinations range
from being incomprehensible to being
downright terrifying. The Bible, on the
other hand, tells us that the dead are
unconscious; they are in a condition best
compared to sleep. ( Ecclesiastes
9:5, 10; John 11:11-14) Thus, we need not
worry about what happens to us after
death, any more than we worry when we
see someone sleeping soundly. Jesus spoke
of a time when “all those in the memorial
tombs” would “come out” to renewed life
on a paradise earth.— John 5:28, 29; Luke
23:43.
Myth 3: God takes little children to
become angels.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who studied
terminally ill individuals, referred to another
common perception among religious
people. Describing a real incident, she
stated that it is “unwise to tell a little child
who lost her brother that God loved little
boys so much that he took little Johnny to
heaven.” Such a statement casts God in a
bad light and does not reflect his
personality and behavior. Dr. Kübler-Ross
continued: “When this little girl grew up to
be a woman she never solved her anger at
God, which resulted in a psychotic
depression when she lost her own little
son three decades later.”
Why would God snatch a child to get
another angel—as if God needed a child
more than the child’s parents did? If it
were true that God takes children, would
that not make him an unloving, selfish
Creator? Contrary to such a perception, the
Bible says: “Love is from God.” ( 1 John 4:7)
Would a God of love cause a loss that even
humans with any measure of decency
would not tolerate?
So why do children die? Part of the
Bible’s answer is recorded at Ecclesiastes
9:11: “Time and unforeseen occurrence
befall them all.” And Psalm 51:5 tells us that
all of us are imperfect, sinful, from the time
of our conception, and the eventuality for
all men now is death from any number of
causes. Sometimes death strikes before
birth, resulting in a stillbirth. In other cases,
children succumb to their dire
circumstances or have accidents and die.
God is not responsible for such
eventualities.

Myth 4: Some people are tormented
after death.
Many religions teach that the wicked will
go to a fiery hell and be tormented forever.
Is this teaching logical and Scriptural? The
human life span is limited to 70 or 80
years. Even if someone was guilty of
extreme wickedness all his life, would
everlasting torment be a just punishment?
No. It would be grossly unjust to torment a
man forever for the sins that he committed
in a short lifetime.
Only God can reveal what happens after
people die, and he has done so in his
written Word, the Bible. This is what the
Bible says: “As the [beast] dies, so the
[man] dies; and they all have but one
spirit . . . All are going to one place. They
have all come to be from the dust, and they
are all returning to the dust.” (Ecclesiastes
3:19, 20) There is no mention here of a
fiery hell. Humans return to dust—to
nonexistence—when they die.
In order to be tormented, a person has
to be conscious. Are the dead conscious?
Once again, the Bible gives the answer:
“The living are conscious that they will die;
but as for the dead, they are conscious of
nothing at all, neither do they anymore
have wages, because the remembrance of
them has been forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes
9:5) It is impossible for the dead, who are
“conscious of nothing at all,” to experience
agony anywhere.
Myth 5: Death means the permanent end
of our existence.
We cease to exist when we die, but this
does not mean that everything is
necessarily finished. The faithful man Job
knew that he would go to the grave, Sheol,
when he died. But listen to his prayer to
God: “O that in Sheol you would conceal
me, that you would keep me secret until
your anger turns back, that you would set
a time limit for me and remember me! If an
able-bodied man dies can he live again? . . .
You will call, and I myself shall answer
you.”— Job 14:13-15.
Job believed that if he was faithful until
death, he would be remembered by God
and in time be resurrected. This was the
belief of all of God’s servants in ancient
times. Jesus himself confirmed this hope
and showed that God would use him to
raise the dead. Christ’s own words give us
this assurance: “The hour is coming in
which all those in the memorial tombs will
hear [Jesus’] voice and come out, those
who did good things to a resurrection of
life, those who practiced vile things to a
resurrection of judgment.”— John 5:28, 29.
Very shortly God will remove all
wickedness and establish a new world
under heavenly rulership. ( Psalm
37:10, 11; Daniel 2:44; Revelation
16:14, 16 ) The result will be a paradise
over the whole earth, inhabited by people
who serve God. In the Bible we read: “I
heard a loud voice from the throne say:
‘Look! The tent of God is with mankind,
and he will reside with them, and they will
be his peoples. And God himself will be
with them. And he will wipe out every tear
from their eyes, and death will be no more,
neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain
be anymore. The former things have
passed away.’”— Revelation 21:3, 4.
Free From Fear
Knowledge of the resurrection hope
coupled with knowledge of the One who is
the source of that provision can comfort
you. Jesus promised: “You will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free.” ( John
8:32) That includes emancipating us from
The fear of death. Jehovah is the only one
who can actually change the process of
aging and death and grant us eternal life.
Can you believe in God’s promises? Yes, you
can because God’s Word always comes
true. ( Isaiah 55:11) We urge you to learn
more about God’s purposes for mankind.
Jehovah’s Witnesses will be delighted to
help you.

JW