The tenacious clinging to life exhibited by the religious right during the Schiavo debacle betrays the utter hollowness of their belief in a "hereafter". That they would think lying in a bed like a turnip, staring at the ceiling, unable to join in with life's activities is preferable to death shows that deep down they know that this life is the only life, and that terrifies them because the life they have lived has been lived totally for a promise of fulfillment after death.
There is a terrible sadness in the faces of fundamentalist, the sadness of someone who has missed the boat, life's ship sailed without them, and for them even the life of a turnip is preferable to admitting that they have lived a lie.