George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life, "Amos Barton" Chapter 10 (middle). True, and the converse is an intriguing thought: perhaps religion itself was born from our experience of parting and reunion. Since death is so reminiscent of previous partings, we come to expect, assign, believe in a reunion from that parting as well. At the same time, religious eschatology — the end of the world as we know it — may come from experience of a loved one’s death.