Does death scare you? If so, What aspect of death scares you?

@wayne,

wayne wrote:

ebrown p wrote:

As Woody Allen said, "I am not afraid of death... I just don't want to be there when it happens".

Zactly

It's interesting...from a very early age I felt that being aware of one's own death...the process of it...as it happened... was important...which turns out to be a strong belief for many Buddhists. I was enraged when I was a kid and my mother, who was dying of cancer, was never told that this was, in fact, what was happening. (Common treatment at the time.)

I felt that this was not only disgustingly patronising but robbed her of an important part of her life.

I was too young to dare say anything, though.

Now, most of the time, I wish to die upon the midnight with no pain...or awareness. But I still feel this is the wrong way to feel about it.

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depends on what you believe in. if you're a materialist heathen like myself, death is not an extremely cheerful perspective.

memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulvere reverteris.

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Death is a fraud; its fake.

David

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@djjd62,

Quote:

wait a minute, all you guys are alive?

Iwas thinking of trying life...you know, a sort of teenager-experiment thingy...

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I have been dead. My last thoughts of life were how peaceful it is...I realise that the peace was due to a lack of sound...no breathing, no hearing, no squishing blood, no thoughts of life, no sight, no dreams....nothing. It was entirely acceptable. Coming back was a bit of a shock. Sort of..."ah, crap...here we go again..."

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I 'die' every night when I sleep, yet that holds no fear for me because I'm secure in the knowledge of awakening. However I fear death because if it can be argued that life has purpose, it would be its continued survival.

Death is likely the ultimate anathema to the sentient being with the will to survive.

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@anil m,

Quote:

What aspect of death scares you?

The thought of leaving you behind.

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@GoshisDead,

GoshisDead wrote:

Death is a fictional character, I'm about as much scared of him as I am of Moby Dick

I'd like to know how you figure death is fictional, since fiction implies it's not real, and death is very real for every human being.

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@dagmaraka,

dagmaraka wrote:

depends on what you believe in. if you're a materialist heathen like myself, death is not an extremely cheerful perspective.

memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulvere reverteris.

I disagree that fear of death depends on what one "believes in". I think fear of death crosses all philosophical lines. I can find honest people who are everything from atheist to Roman Catholic who experience fear when considering their own death.

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I fear the actual process, but I find that now the first fear that comes to mind is my daughter -- how she'd deal with it, how hard it would be for her. Then my husband.

When I get in a morbid rut (which happens sometimes... I feel a lump somewhere and my thoughts are off and running before I can corral them), I spend the most time on thinking of how I'd try to prepare her... make videos, write lots of letters, etc., etc.

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i'd go willing into the arms of death if she looks like the character from the Sandman comic series

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Death_%28DC_Comics%29.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(DC_Comics)

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@Chumly,

Chumly wrote:

I 'die' every night when I sleep, yet that holds no fear for me because I'm secure in the knowledge of awakening. However I fear death because if it can be argued that life has purpose, it would be its continued survival.

Death is likely the ultimate anathema to the sentient being with the will to survive.

Tell me how you absolutely know you will wake up in the morning, please.

You fear death, because life can have meaning? I don't follow. Could you explain this to me too?

----------------------------

I do not fear death because it will come to me sooner or later (If I'm lucky it'll be later); it's the same as not fearing my bus coming while waiting at the bus stop.

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@snood,

some people are just not afraid of death. i dare say most of those who are not afraid do believe either in god or in some sort of afterlife. has nothing whatsoever to do with catholicism per se or any particular religion for that matter though.

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@dagmaraka,

>>some people are just not afraid of death. i dare say most of those who are not afraid do believe either in god or in some sort of afterlife. has nothing whatsoever to do with catholicism per se or any particular religion for that matter though.<<

If that's so, I'd be willing to be that nine of ten times, that person is either elderly (and has come to peace with the concept), psychologically/neurologically unhealthy or being dishonest. Fear of death is an evolutionary adaptation; avoiding death is a good way to not die and thus to ensure the survival of the species.

Most of the deeply religious people who claim to not fear to death are full of themselves. If people really, earnestly believe there is an afterlife of literally endless peace, love, and happiness, every religious person would want to die. This life would be a crap hole in comparison to that life.

In fact, religion's sole purpose is to hide from death BECAUSE we all fear it. We fear the unknown, and death is a huge unknown. Inventing fairytales that make dying awesome is a perfect way to conceal serious anxiety about it, and it is comforting to think that the loved one that just passed away isn't gone forever.

And, frankly, Mister Kitten, you may not have a hypochondriac's attitude about death, but if someone had a loaded gun to your head, don't tell me you would'nt be sweating profusely.

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@AwTin,

it's not for me to judge if someone is really not afraid or just saying so. that is frankly their problem. for myself, believing in nothing after i go hither, i only know i am not looking forward to dying all too much.

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@anil m,

The only thing that scares me about death is will happen to my loved ones after I am gone.

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mister kitten wrote:

Tell me how you absolutely know you will wake up in the morning, please.

I'm secure in the knowledge of awakening because it's statistically very unlikely for me to die in my sleep given my present age and health. It's been well demonstrated empirically that for circumstances to be predictable absolutism is not required.

mister kitten wrote:

You fear death, because life can have meaning? I don't follow. Could you explain this to me too?

OK what I said was I fear death because if it can be argued that life has purpose, it would be its continued survival and death is likely the ultimate anathema to the sentient being with the will to survive. So if you accept the argument that life has purpose, then to not survive means the cessation of purpose. I would argue its an essential purpose of life to survive (arguably the premier purpose to the sentient being with the will to survive)...unless you argue that life's purpose is the cessation of purpose (hee-hee).

mister kitten wrote:

I do not fear death because it will come to me sooner or later (If I'm lucky it'll be later); it's the same as not fearing my bus coming while waiting at the bus stop.

You tell me that you do not fear death because it will come to you sooner or later and you say that's the same as not fearing your bus coming while waiting at the bus stop. By that token you should have no fear of committing suicide right now.

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@AwTin,

AwTin wrote:

Fear of death is an evolutionary adaptation; avoiding death is a good way to not die and thus to ensure the survival of the species.

Very similar to my claim that death is likely the ultimate anathema to the sentient being with the will to survive. Whether non-sentient creatures can have fear as we understand it is another question, however even at the non-sentient level, the drive to survive predominates.

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People who have returned from death in hospitals
(i.e., no EKG, no EEG, no respiration for a while)
and who REMEMBER that experiences
(many DON 'T remember; some remember some
of their deaths, but not others) agree that after
those experiences of death, thay have NO fear
thereof again. Some of them objected to having
been restored to human life. www.IANDS.org

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

People who have returned from death in hospitals (i.e., no EKG, no EEG, no respiration for a while) and who REMEMBER that experiences (many DON 'T remember; some remember some of their deaths, but not others) agree that after those experiences of death, thay have NO fearthereof again. Some of them objected to having been restored to human life. www.IANDS.org
David

Since some of them objected to having been restored to human life might we then assume they committed suicide to assuage their objections? Or perhaps they were restored to non-human life given the gravity of their discontent.

1 Reply

Does death scare you? If so, What aspect of death scares you?

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