You’re correct, I should have chosen the words better. I had the same classes as doctors for years and had to compete with them for grades, but my courses veered once the classes went onto curing people. (It’s a bit too late to cure them, by the time they get to us 😅)
After that, was 4 semesters of postmortem science classes revolving around pathology, chemistry, embalming, biohazard protection, forensics, facial reconstruction; and the weird ones like funeral law/insurance, history of death, customs and religions, psychology of death and dying. I love doing reconstructions and creating prosthetics to match a photo when a person is too decomposed or injured. Giving people the chance to say goodbye and have closure is really rewarding.
I’m a mortician/postmortem scientist, who used to run the WSU Funeral History Museum. Based on my research, I don’t think humans could exist without some type of religion/code/customs. As long as there has been death, even in ancient/prehistoric times, humans have been doing specific procedures, to say goodbye to their fallen loved ones.
There’s writings in almost every culture that teach us about what these civilizations believed, and some are beautiful, while others are kindof terrifying, but it all wrapped around people trying to cope with death.
Even if we found out complete proof for what actually happens when you die and after death, some people are still going to prefer their religion’s ideas because it brings them more peace. Death seems to be the clinch pin for all religions, and I honestly don’t think we’d have religion, if we didn’t understand the concept of death. People just want something to believe in.
Now, the garbage parts of religion are created by people seeking power, money, and control, and as long as there’s those who desire to conquer others, religion will be made up and used as a scapegoat, as to why certain people deserve power.