After Death....

Not surprisingly, our last survey on death provided a hodgepodge of answers.  Three questions were asked:

1) What am I after death?

2) What do I look like after death?

3) Where am I after death?

Here's the results:

1) After death I am a...

SOUL (17) 

SPIRIT (5) 

MYSELF (5) 

BODY & SOUL (3) 

SLEEPING, NON-BODY THING, NON-SOUL THING, THINKING THING, EXPERIENCING THING, GHOST, FORM OF MYSELF (Each got 1)

2) After death I look like:

SAME (12)

NEW BODY (7)

NON-PHYSICAL (6)

EXISTING, NOTHING, UNDEFINED SHAPE, ANYTHING, FLOATING THING (Each got 2)

UNKNOWABLE, DEAD BODY (Each got 1)

3) After death I am at:

A BODY (6)

EARTH (6)

HEAVEN (5)

AFTERLIFE (4)

LIMBO (3)

NOT DEFINABLE (3)

BETTER PLACE (2)

VOID (2)

BEFORE GOD, DREAM, DOESN'T MATTER, ETERNAL PLACE (Each got 1)

Each question provoked at least 12 distinct answers, though I was able to combine some to get the categories you see here.  This diversity might show several things, but I want to claim it shows a general ignorance about religious belief.  

First let me distinguish between "theology"--doctrinal knowledge, "religious conviction"--pulpit knowledge, and "religious views"--popularized views.  For instance, theologically Jesus is the "propitiation" for our sin whereas from the pulpit we hear that Jesus "forgives" our sin whereas in popular discussion Jesus "loves" us in spite of our sin.  Notice that the popular view says comparatively nothing compared to the theological view, where the pulpit view is egocentrically centered on personal problems.

Given that long-winded attempt to distinguish some levels of religious knowledge, I think that there are three explanations for the diversity of answers to a standard creedal question.

a) Students do not know what either the theology or religious convictions imply about the nature of the afterlife.

b) Students come from a diversity of religious backgrounds which have different views of the afterlife.

c) Students put aside their religious convictions when answering the survey and so without religion there are no unified views on the afterlife and they presented only the popular views.

Few (none?) of these answers show theological nor pulpit knowledge, so (b) has little footing.  And while many of these answers are consistent with popular views and thereby support (c), they were for the most part presented as if they were religious convictions, implying that students did not put aside their convictions but rather tried to present them.  This leaves (a)--theological ignorance--as the best explanation for the diversity and content of these answers.