Designing and Validation of a Scale to Evaluate Belief in the life after Death; a Preliminary Study

The present research is concerned with designing a questionnaire to evaluate belief in the life after death, based on the theoretical foundations of Islam. 70 items were included in the questionnaire after investigating the content and formal validity by experts and after testing the different aspects of the problem. 259 people who were selected randomly completed the questionnaire. A factor analysis was conducted with four factors and promax circuit. Cornbach's Alpha was used to check the validity of the test. In addition to the evaluation of the content of questionnaire by religious experts, the method of the correlation between total score and sub-tests was used to investigate the reliability of the questionnaire. The results show that the validity of the test is acceptable and it can be used as a valid scale for evaluating belief in the life after death together with an extensive research. The test includes five subscales: escaping duty, preparation, hereafter centredness, transcendence, hedonism.