Citation

Sharp S. Rev. Relig. Res. 2019; 61(2): 157-167.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Religious Research Association, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s13644-019-00363-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Drawing on insights from cognitive psychology, I argue that the religious experiences of witnessing and/or experiencing a miraculous physical healing event will be negatively associated with attitudes towards physician-assisted suicide. I evaluate this argument using data from the 2007 wave of the Baylor Religion Survey (N = 1598). I find that those who have witnessed and/or experienced a miraculous physical healing have more negative attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide than those who have not witnessed and/or experienced such an event, even when controlling for religiosity, sociodemographic, and personality factors. These results show that researchers should consider if and how religious experiences influence people's attitudes. © 2019, Religious Research Association, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

Physician-assisted suicide; Miraculous healing; Religious experience