unreceptive and unresponsive
	no reflexes
	no movement and no breathing

	observation of the status of the eye
	most reliable way to determine death

	increasing number of people in persistent vegetative states
	original intent was to spare patients from useless treatment
	increasing demand for organ donations

	past 50 years
	some unresponsive patients are "beyond coma"

	unreceptive and unresponsive
	no reflexes
	no circulation to or within the brain
	no movement and no breathing
	flat EEG

irreversible destruction of both hemispheres of the brain all tissue from the cerebral cortex through the cerebellum and brainstem

irreversible destruction of both cerebral hemispheres

irreversible destruction of neural tissue in the cerebral cortex intellectual functioning

	interpretation of death most common in the ancient world
	still seen in children

transition to a "similar life"

evolutionary biology and philosophy

	John 4:2-3 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Today
	Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

The Wheel of Death symbol for Buddhism

death event the final cessation of life processes

	All of the information on hell, comes from Easton’s Bible Dictionary
	derived from the Saxon helan, to cover; hence the covered or the invisible place
	In Scripture there are three words so rendered: sheol hades gehenna

Sheol

	occurring in the Old Testament sixty-five times. This word sheol is derived from a root-word meaning "to ask," "demand;" hence insatiableness (Prov. 30:15, 16). It is rendered "grave" thirty-one times (Gen. 37:35; 42:38; 44:29, 31; 1 Sam. 2:6, etc.). The Revisers have retained this rendering in the historical books with the original word in the margin, while in the poetical books they have reversed this rule.
	In thirty-one cases in the Authorized Version this word is rendered "hell," the place of disembodied spirits. The inhabitants of sheol are "the congregation of the dead" (Prov. 21:16). It is (a) the abode of the wicked (Num. 16:33; Job 24:19; Ps. 9:17; 31:17, etc.); (b) of the good (Ps. 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13, etc.).
	Sheol is described as deep (Job 11:8), dark (10:21, 22), with bars (17:16). The dead "go down" to it (Num. 16:30, 33; Ezek. 31:15, 16, 17).

The Greek word hades of the New Testament has the same scope of signification as sheol of the Old Testament. It is a prison (1 Pet. 3:19), with gates and bars and locks (Matt. 16:18; Rev. 1:18), and it is downward (Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15).

The righteous and the wicked are separated. The blessed dead are in that part of hades called paradise (Luke 23:43). They are also said to be in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22).

in most of its occurrences in the Greek New Testament, designates the place of the lost (Matt. 23:33). The fearful nature of their condition there is described in various figurative expressions (Matt. 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 25:30; Luke 16:24, etc.).

Hinnnom

a deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the so-called "Hill of Evil Counsel." It took its name from "some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom." It is first mentioned in Josh. 15:8. It had been the place where the idolatrous Jews burned their children alive to Moloch and Baal. A particular part of the valley was called Tophet, or the "fire-stove," where the children were burned. After the Exile, in order to show their abhorrence of the locality, the Jews made this valley the receptacle of the offal of the city, for the destruction of which a fire was, as is supposed, kept constantly burning there.

The Jews associated with this valley these two ideas, (1) that of the sufferings of the victims that had there been sacrificed; and (2) that of filth and corruption. It became thus to the popular mind a symbol of the abode of the wicked hereafter. It came to signify hell as the place of the wicked. "It might be shown by infinite examples that the Jews expressed hell, or the place of the damned, by this word. The word Gehenna [the Greek contraction of Hinnom] was never used in the time of Christ in any other sense than to denote the place of future punishment." About this fact there can be no question. In this sense the word is used eleven times in our Lord's discourses (Matt. 23:33; Luke 12:5; Matt. 5:22, etc.).

Numbers 19:11

"Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days."

Greeks

	death (Thanotos)
	twin brother to sleep (Hypnos)

Orpheus

the power of music and love over death

Personifications of Death

help people cope with death objectifying an abstract concept providing symbols that can be shaped and reshaped to stimulate emotional healing and cognitive integration absorbing some of the trauma we experience in encounters with death

1971 Study

	the Gentle Comforter
	the Macabre
	the Gay Deceiver
	the Automan

Vincent Van Gogh

	Death as a man with a scythe cutting a field of wheat
	Death as a natural harvest

Follow-up Study

	increase in female personifications
	women favor a gentle comforter
	men as "cold and remote" and "grim and terrifying"

Social Death

read by how a person is treated

Phenomenological Death

people who feel dead to themselves

Great Equalizer

	works of art commissioned during medieval times
	toll of bubonic plague on rich and poor

Great Validator

	obituaries in big city papers give more space to men than women
	large and expensive funerals entered American life in the colonial days

1 Thessalonians 4:17-18

	After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
	Therefore comfort each other with these words.