AARP’s official bimonthly organ, AARP The Magazine, is the world’s largest circulation magazine.
The current September-October issue, features an article entitled “Life After Death,” which documents the results of their exclusive recent poll of 1,011 people aged 50 and over about their religious beliefs.
Admittedly, the questions were posed to a relatively limited sample of those whose lives are half over.
But the responses testify to coverage of a wide and diverse spectrum of personalities.
Among the findings:
1) That 72 percent believe in life in the hereafter with women (80 percent) much more likely than men (64 percent) to hold this view. Two-thirds of these respondents admit their confidence in eternal life has increased as they've gotten older.
2) That 94 percent believe in God.
3) That 86 percent say there's a Heaven, and only 70 percent believe in Hell. Forty percent conceive of Heaven as an actual locale whereas 47 percent imagine it as “a state of being.” Forty-three percent view Hell as “a state of being,” and 42 percent as a real place.
Encore, Please
4) That 23 percent of those polled believe in reincarnation. Jeffrey Burton Russell, professor emeritus of history at U.C. Santa Barbara, and author of “A History of Heaven,” estimates that 50 years ago, belief in reincarnation would only have been 1 percent.
5) That 60 percent of women and 44 percent of men expressed a belief in spirits or ghosts. Thirty-eight percent of all those interviewed insist they have personally felt or witnessed either a spirit or a ghost.
6) That 77 percent are not frightened by thoughts of what happens after death.
The Other Side
In order to bring some balance to this article, author Bill Newcott asked Margaret Downey, president of the Atheist Alliance International, to express her viewpoint.
“Atheists celebrate life,” she said. “But we know death is a reality. We believe the only afterlife a person can hope to have is the legacy they leave behind, the memory of the people who have been touched by their lives.”
Proving Claims
If this up-to-date report reveals nothing else, it demonstrates the veracity of the two slogans:
“Heaven: The Ultimate Bribe,” and “Hell: The Ultimate Blackmail,” and their decided impact on 1,011 of America's senior citizens.
Ben Edward Akerley is a Culver City resident.
