Episode 5

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Episode 5

Death is an experience that all humans will share, yet this experience is both deeply individual and shaped by the societies we live in. While historically religion offered a framework for understanding death and the afterlife, with the rise of nonreligion, our attitudes toward death are changing. In this episode, we learn about how obituaries have changed over time, how beliefs about the afterlife are being reshaped, and how death cafés offer places to talk intentionally about death and dying.

We hear from Chris Miller, a postdoctoral fellow with the Nonreligion in a Complex Future Project, Christel Manning, a professor of sociology at Sacred Heart University, and Martina Steiger, a death café facilitator.

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Further Reading

For more on death cafés:

Chris Miller and Lori G. Beaman, “Nonreligious Afterlife: Emerging Understandings of Death and Dying,” Religions (2024).
Chris Miller, “Nonreligious Afterlife? Death Cafés and Emerging Understandings of Death,” Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network Blog (2024).
https://nonreligionproject.ca/death-cafes/
Gitte H. Koksvik and Naomi Richards, “Death Café, Bauman and Striving for Human Connection in ‘Liquid Times,’” Mortality 28, no. 3 (2021): 349–66.

For more on the NCF’s obituaries research:

Chris Miller, “Remembered by our pets: More animals are getting a mention in obituaries,” The Conversation (January 16, 2024).
https://nonreligionproject.ca/obituaries/

For more on nonreligious understandings of the afterlife:

Roosa Haimila, Hanne Metsähinen, and Mark Sevalnev, “Supernatural Belief in ‘Scientific’ Worldviews?: Investigating Science-oriented Finns’ Explanations for Origins, Death and Suffering,” Journal of Cognition and Culture 24, no. 1-2 (2024): 1-34,
Christel Manning, “Meaning Making Narratives Among Non-Religious Individuals Facing the End of Life,” in New Dimensions in Spirituality, Religion, and Aging, edited by V. L. Bengston, & M. Silverstein, 59-85. (New York, NY: Routledge.)
Christel Manning, “Facing Death without Religion: How Non-Religious Elders Imagine Death and How That Shapes Their Lives,” Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging(2023).