
Originally Posted by
Fluidic Kimbo
If you make it to 85, pretty much all your friends are dead. It would be nice to have kids and grandkids though I suppose.
I have a theory about why people were so anally religious 200 years ago... because in a family with 10 kids... 7 or 8 of them would make it to the age of 20... so they were always surrounded by death. Being in such a horrible environment could only be remedied by constantly thinking about going to heaven and seeing their lost loved one's again (and by being very religious in their day to day activities to ensure this). I found my great-great grandfather's grave in the west of Ireland, he died in 1899. Back then it was cold for 3/4 of the year, there was no electricity or central heating, and their brothers and sisters and friends were dying all around them. I would imagine this is why the Catholic church got such a hold on Ireland -- people desperately needed religion.
I was born in the 80's, and I made it to the age of about 16 without one of my friends dying. One of the guys in school got cancer and died at 16. But 200 years ago, if you made it to the age of 10, you'd probably already had 3 or 4 friends that died -- so everyone prayed and believed in God just to get by.