Is death a friend or an enemy?

It's not a friend or enemy; it's just a fact of life. It's called "nature."

A quick google yeilded this....

[quote]I suggest that people also take a look at Joe Haldeman's book, Buying Time (I think the British version was The Long Habit of Living). I think that is an excellent lesson about longevity. I also suggest that we take a look at The Boat of a Million Years, by Poul Anderson, which follows on from Heinlein's approach to longevity. This is another excellent novel[/quote]
Greg Bear

No, it's relief from this Wordly-life.

"This life is a prison for the believer, while it is paradise for the disbeliever."

Grieve at birth and rejoice at death.

JLN, Some cultures do just that!

Watching the elderly people who regularly pass through here (my work place), the vast majority have no intention of welcoming death. It's something that happens to them uninvited. I realize many persons do become tired of the suffering in life and desire therefore to pass away, but not one I have spoken with here indicates that feeling.

Correction: in 14 years, I witnessed two who preferred to die.

And to perhaps make my point; were they in your opinion, more likely to be traditionally religious? Assuming of course they were in good health, which if they were not, would skew any such argument I might have.

It all depends on the individual; some in good health accept death, and those who are very sick wish to live. Nothing strange about why people can accept or not accept their own death. I don't even think it has much to do with religious' belief. I believe it has more to do with "fear" than anything else.

Source?

Most of the ones, if not all, of which I wrote were religious, but not fanatically so.

Look, if you want to be immortal thought scientific means, you may as well do it properly:

Convert (copy) yourself into information yes, both into the internet and storage devices.

Clone yourself yes, but many times, and into every corner of the Earth and beyond, backwater places mainly, and slightly modify the appearance of each clone so that they are not recognisable.

But all this is unneccessary if you prolong your life through cybernetics or experience transenlightenment ie the convertion of the brain (and body) into machines. This can be achieved through slowly replacing the cells in you brain with mechanical alternatives.

And finally, if you know how, create an energy being identical in personality to yourself. (Ironicly it was you, Chumly, who introduced this concept to me.)

I have long been deeply fascinated in longevity, both through means achievable in today's world, and those of science fiction.

It seems to me that if you're inclined to be religious, it would be more reasonable to worship at the alter of medial science, than at the local church.

Actually it seems to me that if you're inclined to be religious, it would also be more reasonable to worship the sun, than at the local church.

Yeah, but all those things aside, if you were to croak right now from some wayward aneurysm or misplaced meteorite, would that event be welcomed as a friend or lamented as an enemy?

You know when you put it like that, it makes me realize it's never just one or the other, at least not for me. I read your post and thought about how I'd feel about death, as in "right now" and because at this moment I'm feeling tired and have a lot of "stuff" looming ahead of me that I'm not looking forward to, and I thought-"A meteorite would take care of all of that pretty neatly." And in terms of the world and the direction it's heading, I sometimes think it'd be the best thing if it just shut down and started all over. A meteorite might take care of that too.

I don't know about anyone else, but a lot of how I think about death depends on how energetic and motivated and hopeful about life I'm feeling at any given moment. But as I said on another thread, I equate death with a long sleep (at worst) or possibly even a reunion with people I love (at best) so I can always think of worse scenarios.

Chumly has said:
"At the correct moment, I'll clone myself back into the new millenium to become one with the Cosmos, and escape this mortal coil. "

Are you not one with the Cosmos now?

No, not unless or until I can fully embrace all the forces of the universe. I am not convinced anyone else can either, regardless of their claims and perceptions, but I'm not immune to being convinced otherwise, if it can be directly shown.

Chumly wrote: It seems to me that if you're inclined to be religious, it would be more reasonable to worship at the alter of medial science, than at the local church.

FACT: Medical science have saved more lives than prayer.

Actually it seems to me that if you're inclined to be religious, it would also be more reasonable to worship the sun, than at the local church.

FACT: Worship of the sun saves you money; no tithe or offerings needed.
Worship at the church invests much needed funds to feed and house the poor all over the world.

Silly. If you croaked from an aneurysm, or a meteorite, it would be so quick that you would not have to waste one minute of your precious time on deciding how you feel about it.

Zap.......................It's over!