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Author | Mohammad Samir Hossain |
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Country | United States of America |
Language | English |
Subject | Scientific Thanatology |
Publisher | BookSurge |
Publication date | December 2007 |
Media type | Paperback |
ISBN | 141968454X |
Quest for a New Death: Death and Adjustment Hypotheses (2007) is a book written by Mohammad Samir Hossain, published by Amazon.com's Print on demand service, BookSurge Publishing. In it, Hossain argues that adjustment to death is hampered by our preconceived misconceptions about the phenomenon of death, and the concept that our existence absolutely ends with death should be converted to something like, "death does not cause absolute end to existence". According to Hossain, such change in conceptualization can only occur when human morality attains a certain level, as decay or deterioration of traditional concept of death is very much connected to the code of ethics and beliefs.
In Section IV (Synopsis) of the book, Hossain summarises his thesis as follows:
"Our current stance about death, based on the perception of permanent cessation of existence, has no scientific basis. Epistemologically, it is a wrong information. The opposite perception denoting existence after death is scientifically unapproachable, but epistemologically acceptable when approached. The perception of ceasing to exist is also unhealthy and causing continuous harmful changes at personal and social levels. Thus, as a natural consequence, healthy accommodation of the phenomenon of death in our life is practically absent. So death, at least for the purpose of scientific and educational activities, should be regarded or defined as something very significant that does not necessarily bring absolute end to one’s existence. View towards moral attitude is strongly connected to such practical improvement in the concept. Adoption of stronger morality by restraining the desire for materialistic life can lead to a satisfactory accommodation of the ‘persistence of existence after death’ concept; because, historically, negative attitude towards ‘moral ethics in life’ was the main factor that provoked significant deterioration in the concept and attitude towards death. Adoption of this methodologically redefined concept of death should lead us to a better and healthy attitude with a healthy accommodation of ‘death’ in life. Also it might help to arrest the deteriorating changes in our civilization."
Quest for a New Death was reviewed in the journal Death Studies by Zakaria Siddique. [1] Siddique described it as ....
The book has also been used in the [name of course] at [name of college]... [2]