Knowledge of Death

RE: 'if there is one absolute constant in life'
Death is not a constant. It may be Inevitablity, but is not a Constant. If it was a constant we would be dying all the time. Perhaps we are worning out with the time, but we are not dying every day (in the clinical sense ... and in the general case, by excluding some pathology).

Come on Herald, you know what I mean. Death is the only future any person knows will happen without a doubt. If something lives, it will die. That's consistency or a constant.

You know that, Neo, because several thousands of years ago some people put that into a book filled with inconsistencies???

C'mon!

Interesting guess, Mikey.

Probably based on introspection of some sort.

You ought to guard against supposing that because you do something (like base everything on knowing you are going to die)...that everyone else does also. It is not a logical conclusion to make.

I see what you're saying Frank. My argument is Death is the only constant we know to be true about our own lives. How can the only thing we know to be true not be what we base our lives on, whether we think about it or not? It's why we believe in idea's we don't know to be as absolute as our own knowing of death.

It is not the only constant we "know to be true" about our lives, Mikey. We "know" we were born, for instance. We "know" we are living. We "know" we are conscious. We “know” we interact with others. We “know” there are others with whom to interact.

The quotes around the word “know” in those comments are to denote that I am using the word the way you used it. My sense is that we truly do not “know” any of those things. The idea that we were born, are living, are interacting, that there are others…may be an illusion…just as the notion that “we” are going to “die” may be an illusion.

I turned 77 yesterday…and I notice that the life expectancy statistics are closing in on me. If this (existence) is not an illusion, I’m going to die someday soon. But I’m looking forward to my next round of golf without that in mind…except to participate in this discussion.

Just curious: Do you think about your own death often? I guess I am asking, "What motivated you to write this thread?"

I started this thread because Death is the one thing no one wants to ever talk about because everyone "knows" (guesses) they are going to die. It's the one constant and the one thing everyone has in common. No one can agree if we "exist", what being conscious is, if reality is "real" or an "illusion", if "God" exists, what morals are, if aliens exist, if we are subjective or objective, if evolution is true, if science is legit, is time real, etc, etc, etc.

But if there is one thing everyone does "know", it's they will die, even if they don't believe it. We know death and we know we can't escape death, no matter how many ideas we come up with to try and find an alternate solution.

We will always know our own mortality, so we base our lives and do what we do, knowing we won't be doing it forever. We feel emotion because we know we won't feel emotion forever. We find love as fast as we can and spend our lives striving for it, knowing one day, we won't know that feeling. We do "crazy" and "exciting" things because we know that the feeling won't last forever. We settle down knowing life is too short to be doing "crazy" things. I can keep going on, but I won't.

Death is the absolute constant of a human. It's known even if it doesn't want to be know. How can that not be the motivation of our lives?

RE: Death is the only future any person knows will happen without a doubt.
I cannot understand - are you living or are you dead. If you are alive behave as such. Besides the death is not the worst case scenario that can happen to somebody. There are a lot of things that are much worse than that - to die slowly, for example, tissue-by-tissue.
Yes, we die, for if we have been living forever we would not be able to live at present on the Earth at all.
Just enjoy life while you still have the technical feasibility to do so.

I have no knowledge of death just like I have no knowledge of nothingness...all I have is the outer picture of the inanimate decay that death portrays...death, per se, is a non issue.

Are you saying that, if Adam and Eve had not died, we could not have been born. Is this because you don't believe the Bible?

What is it you wish were not true?
That God's purpose is for us to live forever?

Frank!
Frank!
Frank!
What are friends for?
This board would be no fun at all if I could not remind you of these facts.

Does your opinion apply also when someone you love dies?