Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question that follows.
For too long, humans have suffered from anxiety and fear around the end of life. Religions, hierarchical structures, medical science and intellectuals have exploited the grief and sense of loss. For centuries, uncertainty around the process of dying forced leaders and thinkers to come up with some explanation about the natural phenomenon.
Unfortunately, the solutions proposed added to the negative thinking, fear and darkness. Concepts of hell, sin, torture, punishment and painful death reinforced the anxiety.
Great collective and individual human efforts have gone into activities primarily designed to prevent death. The invention of fire and agriculture were basic tools that prevented untimely death. Clothes, safe places to sleep, easy access to basic life needs were all invented to prolong life and improve its quality.
The desire to live longer, or perhaps forever, has driven humans to invent great things. The science of medicine as a whole is a tool devised primarily to keep people alive as long as possible. Prevention, cure, regeneration and prosthetic techniques have developed into a large industry and thrive on the desire to live longer, healthier and better-looking lives. However, every time a person dies, medicine now thinks it is a failure of science.
The facts of death are largely unknown. So are facts about god and religion. The combination of these two facts of death and God has created an ever more fearful ambience. Enigma of death, in a way, is the root cause for the stranglehold of religion over society and a source for the invention of a god. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the doctor we see, and the scripture we read, all were primarily invented to either prevent death or address the fear of it.