Fasting in monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Judaism
Fasting for Jews means complete abstinence from food and drink, including water. Observant Jews traditionally fast six days a year. With the exception of Yom Kippur, fasting is never permitted on Saturday.
Christianity
Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist Christian denominations have emphasized the importance of the Friday fast, which includes abstinence from meat, dairy products, and alcohol.
Roman Catholicism
Catholic fasting, is to reduce food intake to one full meal that does not contain meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and Fridays throughout the year unless Friday is celebrated and two small meals should not equal the large meal. Solid food is not allowed between meals. It is necessary to completely refrain from eating meat for this day for those aged 14 and over.
Eastern Orthodox
Orthodox Christians fast on Wednesday (in memory of Jesus' betrayal) and on Friday (in memory of Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday). Not eating olive oil, meat, fish, milk and dairy products until sunset. In addition, they abstain from sexual relations on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, as do the entirety of Lent, Christmas Lent, and the fifteen days before the feast of the Assumption of Mary.
Islam
Muslims fast the month of Ramadan from dawn to sunset every year, by abstaining from food, drink, and even smoking and sexual intercourse. There is also a broader meaning of fasting that includes abstaining from every falsehood in word and deed, and from fighting. Believers strive to purify the body and soul and increase their piety.
Fasting in earthly religions
Fasting is a feature of ascetic traditions in religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Mahayana tradition recommends that laity fast six days each month and three months of fasting each year. Members of the Baha'i Faith fast nineteen days from sunrise to sunset during the month of March each year. Buddhist monks and nuns do not eat every day after the noon meal. It is a disciplined system that aids in meditation and good health. Lay Buddhists fast during times of intense meditation. Where they completely abstain from eating animal products, but they drink milk. Moreover, they also avoid eating processed foods and pungent foods which are: all kinds of garlic and onions.
Hinduism
Certain days of the week are designated for fasting depending on the preferred deity. In southern India, Tuesday is dedicated to the goddess Mariamman. They eat before sunrise and drink liquids only between sunrise and sunset. In the north, Tuesdays and Saturdays are dedicated to Lord Hanuman and milk and fruits are only allowed between sunrise and sunset. In some parts of India, a special fast is practiced for married women in order to prolong the lives of their husbands. The fast is interrupted after the wife sees the moon through a sieve.
Sikhism
Sikhism does not consider fasting a spiritual act and does not encourage intentional starvation. But it encourages moderation in food, that is, not to be hungry and not to overeat.

Encountering deceased loved ones in near-death experiences
Near-death experiences may describe encounters with people that they knew during their earthly life. The following is an example of encountering a deceased loved ones in an NDE. This example is also notable as the NDEr was born totally deaf:
“I approached the boundary. No explanation was necessary for me to understand, at the age of ten, that once I cross[ed] the boundary, I could never come back— period. I was more than thrilled to cross. I intended to cross, but my ancestors over another boundary caught my attention. They were talking in telepathy, which caught my attention. I was born profoundly deaf and had all hearing family members, all of which knew sign language! I could read or communicate with about twenty ancestors of mine and others through telepathic methods. It overwhelmed me. I could not believe how many people I could telepathize with simultaneously.

every day there are new political changes
this is example
Iran, Saudi Arabia agree to restore ties in China-brokered deal
End to 7-year diplomatic rift follows negotiations in Beijing

Near-death experiences of young children
Investigation of near-death experiences in very young children is important because at an early age they are less likely to have established religious beliefs, cultural understandings about death, or even an awareness of what death is. Very young children would be very unlikely to have heard about near-death experiences or understand them. I investigated the NDEs in children age five and younger in the same group of 613 NDErs previously discussed in the section on NDEs while under general anesthesia. Two NDEs were excluded as they did not provide their age in the survey. The study groups included 26 NDErs that were age 5 and younger (average 3.6 years old) and 585 NDErs age 6 and older at the time of their NDEs. The NDERF survey included 33 questions about the content of their NDEs. Statistic was used to compare the responses to these 33 questions between the two groups. There was no statistically significant difference to the responses between the two groups to any of the 33 questions. The NDERF study found that the content of NDEs in children age five and younger appeared to be the same as the content of NDEs in older children and adults. The finding of the NDERF study are corroborated by the investigation of Dr. Cherie Sutherland who reviewed thirty years of scholarly literature regarding the NDEs of children and concluded:
“It has often been supposed that the NDEs of very young children will have a content limited to their vocabulary. However, it is now clear that the age of children at the time of their NDE does not in any way determine its complexity. Even prelinguistic children have later reported quite complex experiences…. Age does not seem in any way to affect the content of the NDE.”
Very young children have near-death experience content that is strikingly similar to older children and adults. This is further evidence that NDEs are occurring independently of preexisting cultural beliefs, religious training, or awareness of the existence of NDE.

Near-death experiences and life reviews
Some near-death experiences include a review of part or all of their prior lives. This NDE element is called a life review. NDErs typically describe their life review from a third-person perspective. The life review may include awareness of what others were feeling and thinking at the time earlier in their life when they interacted with them. This previously unknown awareness of what other people were feeling or thinking when they interacted with them is often surprising and unexpected to the NDErs. Here is an example of a life review: “
I went into a dark place with nothing around me, but I wasn’t scared. It was really peaceful there. I then began to see my whole life unfolding before me like a film projected on a screen, from babyhood to adult life. It was so real! I was looking at myself, but better than a 3-D movie as I was also capable of sensing the feelings of the persons I had interacted with through the years. I could feel the good and bad emotions I made them go through.”
In my review of 617 near-death experiences from NDERF, a life review occurred in 88 NDEs (14%). None of the life reviews in these NDEs appeared to have any unrealistic content as determined by my review or based on comments by the NDErs about their own life reviews. Life reviews may include long forgotten details of their earlier life that the NDErs later confirm really happened. If NDEs were unreal experiences, it would be expected that there would be significant error in life reviews and possibly hallucinatory features. The consistent accuracy of life reviews, including the awareness of long-forgotten events and awareness of the thoughts and feelings of others from past interactions, further suggests the reality of NDEs.

God listens to every human being, even if he is an infidel
Whoever asks God whether he is a believer or unbeliever God may answer his prayer. The unbelievers ask God for sustenance, so He provides for them, and when harm afflicts them in the sea, they call on God, but when He delivered them to the land, they turned away, ungrateful. God answers the supplication of the one in need and the supplication of the oppressed, even if he is an infidel. But not everyone whose supplication God answers means that God is loving him, or satisfied with his action. God spared Pharaoh's body after he believed while he was drowning in the sea.
When Prophet Musa and the believers went with him on their migration, Pharaoh and his soldiers followed him to kill them, and on the way of migration the sea intercepted them, so God honored His Prophet Musa and those with him by making the sea dry for them, so they crossed it. So Pharaoh and those with him followed them, but they drowned in the same sea.
‘’But as he (Pharaoh) was drowning he cried out: '(Now) I believe that there is no god except He in whom the Children of Israel believe. I am of those that surrender.’’ Quran.
God wanted the body of Pharaoh to appear on the beach, so that his people and those who worshiped him could see it, and that would be more informative in establishing a lesson for them. The Quran said: ‘’We shall deliver you Pharaoh (Ramsis II) with your body this day, so that you may be a sign to those after you. Indeed many people pay no heed to Our signs!”
It is believed that the body of Pharaoh is still preserved today in some Egyptian museums.

God said; ‘And when the agony of death comes in truth (they will say): 'This is what you (man) have been trying to avoid! ' Each soul shall come with a driver, and a witness. (2 angels ). (It will be said): 'Of this you have been heedless. Therefore, we have now removed your covering. Today your sight is sharp.'
Commentators said:
Normal human vision works within a specific range of vision. For example, the eye does not see in the dark. Nor can see angels.
The verse says that at death, normal eyesight ceases to function, and stronger eyesight begins to work, perhaps for a few last seconds, when a person sees God’s creatures that are hidden from him, such as angels and others. This is because the soul lives according to certain laws of which we are not aware, after death.
Quran; ‘They question you about the spirit (soul). Say: 'The spirit is from the command of my Lord. Except for a little knowledge you have been given nothing.’

Near-death experiences with vision in the blind and supernormal vision
There have been a few case reports of near-death experiences in the blind. The largest study of this was by Dr. Kenneth Ring. This Investigation included 31 blind or substantially visually impaired individuals who had NDEs or out-of-body experiences. Of the 31 individuals in the study, 10 were not facing life-threatening events at the time of their experiences, and thus their experiences were not NDEs. There were 14 individuals who were blind from birth in this study, and nine of them described vision during their experiences. This investigation presented case reports of those born totally blind that described in NDEs that were highly visual with content consistent with typical NDEs.
The NDERF website has received additional case reports of near-death experiences among those legally blind. For illustration, the following NDE happened to Marta, a five-year-old blind girl who walked into a lake:
“I slowly breathed in the water and became unconscious. A beautiful lady dressed in bright white light pulled me out. The lady looked into my eyes asked me what I wanted. I was unable to think of anything until it occurred to me to travel around the lake. As I did so, I saw detail that I would not have seen in “real” life. I could go anywhere, even to the tops of trees, simply by my intending to go there. I was legally blind. For the first time I was able to see leaves on trees, bird’s feathers, bird’s eyes, details on telephone poles and what was in people’s back yards. I was seeing far better than 20/20 vision.

Two large retrospective studies investigated the accuracy of out-of-body observations during near-death experiences. The first was by Dr. Janice Holden. Dr. Holden reviewed NDEs with OBEs in all previously published scholarly articles and books, and found 89 case reports. Of the case reports reviewed, 92% were considered to be completely accurate with no inaccuracy whatsoever when the OBE observations were later investigated.
Another large retrospective investigation of near-death experiences that included out-of-body observations was recently published. This study was a review of 617 NDEs that were sequentially shared on the NDERF website. Of these NDEs, there were 287 NDEs that had OBEs with sufficient information to allow objective determination of the reality of their descriptions of their observations during the OBEs. Review of the 287 OBEs found that 280 (97.6%) of the OBE descriptions were entirely realistic and lacked any content that seemed unreal. In this group of 287 NDErs with OBEs, there were 65 (23%) who personally investigated the accuracy of their own OBE observations after recovering from their life-threatening event. Based on these later investigations, none of these 65 OBErs found any inaccuracy in their own OBE observations.

Human bodies can move on their own after death, study finds
Researchers studying the process of decomposition in a body after death from natural causes found that, without any external “assistance,” human remains can change their position. This discovery has important implications for forensic science
Often, forensic scientists will assume that the position in which they find a dead body is the one that the person was in at the time of death — unless, that is, there is evidence that external factors, such as scavengers or a perpetrator, may have altered it.
However, new research led by Alyson Wilson — from Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia — now suggests that human bodies can actually be somewhat restless after death.
This discovery — which Wilson and colleagues have not yet reported in a paper they have published — is linked to a larger project, concerning the use of time-lapse imaging techniques to estimate the time since death. This latter project’s findings appear in Forensic Science International: Synergy.
For the research, the investigators had access to a donated human body — “a mature male who died of natural causes.”
The researchers recorded the body’s full decomposition within the premises of the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER), the only body farm in Australia.
Researchers use such facilities to investigate how human bodies decompose — or remain preserved — under different conditions.
The findings from research projects such as the current one often help forensic scientists develop more accurate ways of determining essential information — including time or place of death — at a crime scene.
Bodies keep on shifting as they decompose
In this research, the investigators were able to make sure that scavenging animals that might feed on decaying flesh could not reach the body, and thus alter its position.
The team took photos of the decomposition process of the body over more than 17 months and found that the remains appeared to move on their own.
For instance, while they initially placed the arms alongside the body, at one point, the researchers note, the arms shifted and were flung to one side.
“We think the movements relate to the process of decomposition, as the body mummifies and the ligaments dry out,” explains Wilson in an interview for the Agence France-Presse.
Wilson and colleagues believe that understanding when such shifts are likely to occur during the process of decomposition could help forensic scientists provide more accurate estimates of the time of death.
It could also, the researchers add, help reduce the possibility that forensic investigators will make incorrect deductions about crime scenes.
“They’ll map a crime scene, they’ll map the victim’s body position, they’ll map any physical evidence which is found, and they can understand the cause of death,” says Wilson.
The researcher believes this may well be the first time that someone has attempted to match natural alterations in a body’s position after death with different stages of the process of decomposition.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326281

The first prospective study of the accuracy of out-of-body observations during near-death experiences was by Dr. Michael Sabom. This study investigated a group of patients who had cardiac arrests with NDEs that included OBEs, and compared them with a control group of patients who experienced cardiac crises but did not have NDEs. Both groups of patients were asked to describe their own resuscitation as best they could. Sabom found that the group of NDE patients were much more accurate than the control group in describing their own resuscitations.
Another prospective study of out-of-body observations during near-death experiences with similar methodology to Sabom’s study was published by Dr. Penny Sartori. This study also found that near-death experiencers were often remarkably accurate in describing details of their own resuscitations. The control group that did not have NDEs was highly inaccurate and often could only guess at what occurred during their resuscitations.

The view of earthly religions (non-heavenly) about death;
In the Pharaonic civilization, they believed in resurrection after death, and that mummification was essential for safe passage from the world of the living to the afterlife.
The Hindu holy book (200-500 B.C.), makes death in the grip of the god “Shiva,” the god of solution and annihilation. They cremate the dead and his family takes the ashes of his body and scatters it in the holy river. Sikhs do the same in that ritual.
In the Zoroastrian religion (444 B.C.), death is the work of Satan, so they leave the dead naked on the roof of a tower. The birds of prey eat it and bones remain, in a hole that the sun purifies them from the defilement of sin, so that bliss enters.
The Greeks and Romans cremated their dead. Lucretius, the first BC Roman philosopher, said in the poem “The Nature of the Universe” that “death is not annihilation, but rather the severing of connections and linking them into new groups.” This view was expressed by the Roman philosopher, Lucius (4 BC), when he said: “A person may lose his life at any time, but not existence.”
In the Buddhist religion, they leave the corpses on top of a mountain. A specialized man cuts them to be eaten by animals and birds, leaving the bones. Then the man beats them with a hammer and mixes them with flour, butter, milk and sugar, and leaves them for the vultures to eat. They believe in reincarnation, which means that the soul of the dead person is transferred to the body of another human being, animal or plant.
Denying death or fleeing from it
Hedonists deny death. They see it as not a natural part of the life cycle, but rather an external enemy, which must be fought by satisfying the desires of the soul, whatever the consequences.
The ancient alchemists in Europe went through a long experiment to discover the “elixir of immortality”. When Ponce discovered Florida in 1513, he had been searching for more than three years for a "fountain of youth" that would "rejuvenate all who drink from it."
The Spanish Saint Teresa said 500 years ago: “Remember that you have one soul, one death, one life… When you realize that, you will know that you have neglected many things in your life.”

A 2020 study that investigated hearing in palliative care patients who were close to death provides evidence that some people may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure the dying brain's response to sound. The findings suggest that telling a person you love them in their final moments may register with them.

“The fury of nature seemed to cause the institutions on which our society is based – those of government, commerce, and civil society – to crumble. First responders appeared overwhelmed as accounts of widespread looting, vandalism, theft, assault, and murder headlined newspapers and as the images of our fellow citizens literally swimming for their lives appeared on television and computer screens. The slow and seemingly inept responses of government at all levels both in preparation for and recovery from the storm infuriated Americans.” (Chamlee-Wright & Rothschild,)
The fury of nature followed by the fury of citizens railing at government ineptitude – in this case, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – is a disturbingly familiar scenario. The frequency of public dissatisfaction with government response to major disasters raises two important questions for the well-being of our republic: “Is public fury justified?” and, perhaps more importantly, “Is railing at government the best approach to ensuring effective action in the next disaster?” This lesson examines contemporary expectations of government in the wake of disaster and the prevailing assumption that only government is big enough to deal with major disasters by first looking at those tasks that government does well. Then, we will turn our attention to when and why government is unlikely to meet our expectations.

https://www.fte.org/teachers/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/disasterslessons/lesson-3-when-disaster-strikes-what-can-government-do/

Religion serves several functions for society. These include (a) giving meaning and purpose to life, (b) reinforcing social unity and stability, (c) serving as an agent of social control of behavior, (d) promoting physical and psychological well-being, and (e) motivating people to work for positive social change.

https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/17-3-sociological-perspectives-on-religion/#:~:text=Religion%20serves%20several%20functions%20for,work%20for%20positive%20social%20change.

Contemporary examples of theocracies include Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, a small country in the western North Africa, is an Islamic republic with a theocratic government and Vatican City. All other countries are with non-religion governments.

The top Total Wealth Countries in 2021 were; America, China, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, India, Canada, Italy, Australia etc. All of them are non-religions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wealth

In 1998, a website called the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF, nderf.org) was established to conduct NDE research and to be a public service.
Portions of the NDERF website, including the NDE questionnaire, have been posted in over 20 different languages.
This prominence of the NDERF website provided a unique opportunity to conduct a large-scale study of NDEs, including NDEs from around the world. At the current time there are over 3,700 NDEs posted on the NDERF website, which is by far the largest collection of publicly accessible NDE accounts in the world.

Why does God allow natural disasters to occur?
This question has preoccupied many philosophers, thinkers, and clerics throughout the ages. Some clerics consider it a divine punishment for humans, if they disobey God or violate His orders or reject the prophets and messengers to them.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, earthquakes occurred in Peru, Chile, and Lisbon. The Lisbon earthquake was the most influential. It happened on All Saints' Day, when most of the population was in churches celebrating and singing religious hymns. The earthquake completely destroyed the city, including churches. The number of victims of this earthquake alone reached about 70,000, and it led to high waves from the sea that stormed the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France.
The questions asked at that time were: If this earthquake was an act of God, then how does it happen on the day, while the believers were gathered reciting religious songs and chanting supplications? Or are these disasters only natural phenomena?
The Scottish Thomas Gordon (1692-1750) said that natural disasters are phenomena whose causes are completely natural, and that they cannot be a divine punishment; ecause it does not distinguish between believers and non-believers.
As for the Catholic clergy, especially in South America, they viewed the earthquakes as a divine punishment for the corruption of people's morals, and for not following the teachings of the (Catholic) religion.
Voltaire (1694-1778); adopted Deism, which according to him means that God created laws for the world, and man must know them and conduct his affairs according to them. So natural disasters are part of nature alone. This is what Rousseau (1712-1778) concluded, as well as others.
Is it impossible for man to control the laws of nature?
Natural disasters continue. Each year there are thousands of earthquakes, large and small, and dozens of storms, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and other violent phenomena.
No geologist claims that the earth's movements associated with earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis become more violent than before. It is scientifically certain that such incidents are repeated.
The authorities have recognized that human activities have made our environment more vulnerable to natural disasters and more vulnerable to them as well. In some developing countries, the increased need for food has led to deforestation. This leads to serious soil erosion. Another example is the drought in the African coast. It leads to starvation, and death. But is the famine in that region solely the result of a lack of water? The ongoing desertification of the coast is largely a human-caused phenomenon. . .
Studies have shown that deaths from natural disasters are much higher in the poorer nations than in the richer nations of the world. For example, from 1960 to 1981, there were 43 earthquakes and other disasters in Japan that killed 2,700 people, with an average of 63 fatalities for each disaster. In the same period, 31 disasters occurred in Peru resulting in 91,000 deaths, or 2,900 per disaster. Why the difference? Answer: Human social, economic, and political activity should take responsibility for the huge difference in the loss of life and the destruction of property.
Another example; it is well known that the coastal delta of Bangladesh is constantly threatened by floods and tsunamis. Nevertheless, millions of Bangladeshis continue to live there. The result is repeated disasters and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Did God command the Bangladeshis not to work to avoid danger or not to move away from it?
In return, the Japanese learned how to make earthquakes pass with minimal losses. In 2022, Japan experienced eight earthquakes of magnitude five or greater. One of them was of 7.3 degree, cutting electric power of two million homes but killing only two people.

Father Seraphim provides personal testimony:
‘’It is from the illness of my spiritual father, Archbishop Kallinikos, Archbishop of Edessa. After he underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor he fell into a deep coma. Doctors said that he was on the verge between life and death. When he regained consciousness a few days later, he spoke with heavy tears. He saw his soul outside his body, and he was seeing all of us preparing for the funeral. He pointed to a specific nurse who used to write down his measurements to buy him the shroud. He said that at that hour he was reciting the prayer of separating the dead to himself.’’
Orthodox point of view
‘’We do not have the right to dismiss all experiences just because they are beyond our assumptions. Nor should we act like atheists who think that the soul is a simple energy for the body and perishes with it.
In Evergitinos there are examples that clearly indicate a state after death. Including about Boutros the monk who “got sick and died.” Then he saw all the torments of hell and places of fire. Then his soul was returned to his body. He declared everything he saw and lived in repentance.’’

The scientists have noticed that some people, at the moment of death or when they came back to life after death, saw very special and strange events that could not be explained by the science of traditional medicine.
In America the psychiatrist Moody has collected the experiences of fifty people after death.
Demons approach a person during his life, but he gets the help of angels, when his soul separates from his body.
Father Seraphim Rose focuses his attention on some of the points that Moody notes. First, “out-of-body experiences.” They are experiences that everyone felt as a state in which the soul leaves the body, yet it does not continue in its consciousness. The soul feels commendable warmth and ease, and it sees the people surrounding the dead body but cannot communicate with them.
Secondly, “meeting with others.” That is, as Modi says, the soul feels lonely for only a short time, and then it feels like it meets others where it suddenly sees, relatives and friends who have died.
The common feature of these post-death experiences is the “entity of light” or the “enlightening entity.” All those who have had such experiences describe the appearance of a light rapidly increasing in brightness. And they all recognized him as a certain personality filled with warmth and love, to whom the recently deceased was attracted by a kind of magnetic attraction. Some of them insisted that this figure is Jesus , and others insisted that he is an angel.
My note:
The dying person sees the angel of death and knows him, so he knows that he will die

THE BIOLOGY OF RELATIONSHIPS: WHAT BEHAVIORAL GENETICS TELLS US ABOUT INTERACTIONS AMONG FAMILY MEMBERS
Laura A. Baker, Associate Professor
Human behavior is subject to genetic variations. The ways in which individuals differ in their intellectual abilities, personalities, and mental health are, to a large extent, functions of their inherited genetic predispositions. Decades of research on twins, adoptees, and families have led to the inescapable conclusion that most reliably measured psychological characteristics are influenced to some degree by genes. Behavior also shows signs of genetic influence; the way one experiences stressful life events, for example, shows some genetic influence. Even personal aspects of individuals, such as spirituality and political ideology, are affected to an extent by genes.1 It should come as no surprise, then, that genes influence the ways in which families function and how family members relate to one another.2 Familial relationships of all kinds—parent-child, sibling, and spousal—can be shown to be at least partially the product of genetic factors.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4685725/#:~:text=Human%20behavior%20is%20subject%20to,of%20their%20inherited%20genetic%20predispositions.