Why Are We Afraid of Death?

[mythbusterfan]

My Friend matthew posted this on my forum,it sounds a little strange at first but bear with it. it was a most brilliant question
oh for the first part to make sense his topic was called Cute Fuzzy Things

"all small fuzzy things die. I hope i just destroyed any warm happy felling you had when you opened this topic.Just kidding Heehee, but it is true cute fuzzy things do die, and becase they are small they die faster. it is the truth, and we must face it. You will die to someday, and there is nothing to stop it. My favorite fraise to describe death is the great equalizer. this is true, no matter how famous or rich, or poor, or happy, or sad you are you will end up 6 feet in the ground trapped in a small box with only the worms to accompany you, or you will be lit on fire and dumped inn a vase to be put above a fire place. Happy isn't it, but what lies beond death, is the new life? Heaven? Reancarnation? Worm food? I personaly think that you have the option of worm food or reancarnation, it makes sence. But the whole thing about death in almost every culture is that you leave behind a vessel, your body, some cultures belive that your body must remain intact or even preserved for you to live in the next world whatever it be. But I personaly think that it is better to live long and happy with no regrets and to die with a smile on your face. It is funny, death is something that we so often try to prevent but will never be cured. Death should be more accepted in our culture, if we didn't have such a problem with death, we wouldn't have life support, we probably wouldn't have nursing homes either, but we are so afraid to lose our loved ones that we can't just let them go, we have to keep them going even if it is painful to them. I do fear death, i don't want people to die, but at the same time my other half tells me the facts about how death is a natural and neccisary thing. If the mighty tree never fell, the new trees would never grow. I leave you with this question, Do you fear death?"

[Lamarquise]

Death...hmm. Weighty topic.

A lot of people are afraid because death is the unknown. Many of them don't see any meaning in it. Some know they'll eventually have to account for some of the evils they've done.

Personally, I believe in resurrection. But that's part of Christianity that's very comforting to me. I believe that our bodies and spirits will be joined again...this time with our bodies all fixed, perfect, so that we can never die again. With everything that might have been wrong with our bodies in life restored to what it should have been. There'll probably be some time between death and resurrection, but what's a little time if we're eternal people just having a mortal experience?

I think the only reason we'd need to be afraid of death is if we had unresolved issues... things we needed to clear up and face and had never done our best to fix.

Nita's basic problem in AWD, I think, was a very common one...the inability to think and hope beyond what we see and know and want now. And I think the Lone Power used it very effectively against her. A lot of times, we just don't know all the answers. And that's where her keeping the Oath no matter what the cost becomes important. Because there are things more important sometimes than mortal life.

Other comments?

[Agent M]

I think we're afraid of death for the same reason we are afraid of change. We're afraid of something that we're not used to, of something that we don't know, and something we've never experienced before. Death is one of those things. But there are things that happen in Life that we've never experienced before, there's a first for everything. First time you read a book out of your usual genre? Good or bad experience? First time you saw an R rated movie? First time at a new school? First friendships, first boyfriends/girlfriends, first loves. First time you tried Chinease food? Tai food? Anything that looked "icky" (or, god forbid, GREEN!)? As far as I can see, nothing is bad about any of these experiences (if you don't like chinease or tai food, insert another food name there ) and so, just because we don't know what happens when we die, just because it's different, does that necessarily mean it's a bad thing? I don't know what happens when we die, I don't know if there's a heaven or a hell (although these are highly accepted where I come from, I'm one of those people who just doesn't get the whole concept of heaven and hell), or reincarnation, or some kind of Egyptian afterlife, even something like HDM. But that's the point: we don't know. For all we know, nothing happens. We could just be buried or cremated and that's that, nothing. While I don't like to believe this, I understand that it's one of many possibilities. But that's even more reason for us to live, because life's so short, we're not going to live forever, we might not even have a soul or a conscious mind for very long. So it's that whole "live life to the fullest thing", because you never know what's going to happen next, and no one knows what death is. Death could be, as sooo many books seem to say, "life's greatest adventure."
And another thing, we don't NEED to know what happens when we die. It destroys all purpose, like knowing the meaning of life. People go their entire lives wondering what the meaning of life is and they end up wasting their lives away and never finding it. And you know why? Because there IS NO SPECIFIC MEANING TO LIFE! And if there is, we're better off not knowing. It's like knowing that all we really are is our brains. When you see something that you think is beautiful, it's just the nerves or whatever in your eyes telling you that it's something "pleasing." When you smell something, or taste something good, it's just your taste buds sending waves to the "pleasure center" of your brain. When you feel something, it's just the same thing. Now how does that feel? To know that everything you feel, see, hear, smell, taste, and touch are all just nerve endings and brain waves? That it's nothing? Well technically, it doesn't "feel" at all, but you get my point. It could be the same with the meaning of life, and the same with what happens when we die. I'm content with not knowing what happens when we die, and as for the meaning of life.... well, I'm good with 42

[Jon Rosebaugh]

Immortality doesn't sit in the brain very well. In theory, every Christian (and a good number of non-Christians as well, but I stick to what I know, here) believes in the Resurrection -- that, as C.S. Lewis described it, our lives here are just the cover and title page of the great story.
But it's not easy -- nor, I think, is it wise -- to constantly keep that in mind. We like to quantify things, and anyone who could weigh 100 years on Earth versus an eternity in Timeheart would have an awful hard time keeping the right perspective here, especially when it comes to the small things that we don't realize matter at first. A wizard who lived only for Timeheart, or a Christian who lived only for Heaven, would be a very poor wizard or Christian. (Fractured metaphors ahoy!)
So sometimes we're not caught up enough in mortality, and sometimes we're too caught up. Part and parcel of being fallible, I guess, but I think it generally works out in the end.

[Bookwyrm Poet]

Just to sidetrack the orginal issue, but deaths in general are little lego skeletons with cloaks and various other clothing to signify there position. Perhaps the most famous death is the Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs. and the all powerful Head Death is quite as well known.

[mythbusterfan]

I don't think that it's that we're afraid to die but we're afraid of not knowing what comes after. We know we are going to die but what makes us fear death is the unkown of what comes after.

that's why so many religions tell you what they think happens after death.
but the truth i think is no one really knows and that's why we're afraid.

[Mousey]

Originally posted by Bookwyrm Poet:
Just to sidetrack the orginal issue, but deaths in general are little lego skeletons with cloaks and various other clothing to signify there position. Perhaps the most famous death is the Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs. and the all powerful Head Death is quite as well known.

XDDDDDDDDDDDD You are so funny. And you`re right, too. DoIOF is FUNNY! *dies, the DoLTD comes along*

[the_peridexis]

death? you might think i'm lying but no, i'm not afraid. i know it'll come sooner or later, but i'm not gonna sit around and moan. nope, i'm making the best of MY life. what about the rest of you pplz?

[kittymeow]

I'm mot afriad of death either. I think I'm more afraid of what I will miss when I'm gone. Like if I wont have time to do what I wanted to do, or have time to figure out who I am. Do you know what I mean? Well I know what I'm trying to say so...lol

[Hogosha]

Part of it is that survival instinct inherent in all animals. Another part of it is just simple human emotion. And of course, there's the fear of the unknown.
As much as a person of a particular faith can claim they know what will happen to them after death, there is really no answer that anyone can give that they will ever fully believe. Maybe we go on in an afterlife, maybe there's just nothing, just eternal rest. I, personally, believe in reincarnation.
I hate high places. When I was younger, I would sometimes work up the courage to go on the high-dive at the public pool, only to chicken out and turn around. People are afraid to take such a big leap like death. But then, maybe it's the fall that scares us--the living part.
"The fall isn't what kills you. Hitting the ground is."

[InkSlinger]

I'm ot realy afraid of death as I'm afraid of not being to remember all the good times we have when we're living.

One problem I have with reincarnation is that if it were true, we would always have the same kind of people with the same personality, and if we were totally different, it dosen't matter 'cause we would be completely different, not the same person.

[Bookwyrm Poet]

I can't say wether or not I fear death, cause i dont really know. I have wanted to know what it was like, what happend when you die, cause I dont want to have to go thru life for no reason at all, i have wanted to know this for much of my life, since i was about six, when i first realized how final death is, that was during the time i really got into books, and i guess my life has been very literal since. everything(or at least most) that i do i take very literally, to the point of stifling my (sometimes overactive) imagination, i cant even imagine simple things like oh say... a kiss.lol, anyways this has always been a problem in my writing especially except whyen magic comes in, a new way of manipulating life and the things in it. thats about it
on another note the qoute hogosha used i like the version "it isnt falling that kills you, its hitting the ground" better

[Mel]

If there's one thing I wouldn't like about death, it's that we would get to miss out on the millions and billions and trillions of life here on earth: from your favorite tree in the woods to someone in Japan you didn't know exsisted. And missing your family and friends. But I kind of get a little comfort from my beliefs, and well, yea. I remember watching Hercules (that little animated film by Disney or whatever) and there's that part where Zeus is looking down at Hercules through this like little pool, making sure he's safe or something like that, and I thought: I betcha that's what heaven's like. And I hope so. I hope that every now and then someone is watching over me in Heaven, and that I will on my family when I die.

Woah, man, I hate then when I go all philosipher...that seems to happen a bit with me, especially when I'm in my bed. Don't you hate that?

Meh *closes eyes and listens to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Finale* Good stuff that is!

[kaiba4ever]

Death is final. After it happens, there's nothing you can do about it, whether you have all the knowledge and technology in the whole world, you won't be able to stop it. People are scared of this finality, that they have no ways of preventing. After someone or something dies, it'll be gone forever. So to imagine a beloved one being gone forever is hard. However, people who belive in reincarnation and the like probably wouldn't fear death for the same reasons if at all (they might fear "moving on" or something else). People also might fear death, because what happens next is unknown, and people fear the unknown.

Personally, I don't believe that there's anything after death. That your soul doesn't go to heaven or hell, or that you're reincarnated, just that your body and soul and everything runs out and decomposes back into the dirt. What I fear most about death, is that when you die there'll be so many unfinished and unfufilled things left behind. Like there's much that you could've done with your life that you never got a chance to do.

[Small town]

I was afraid to post in this topic cuzz ppl might think of me as a dark goth(no offence) ok
I am not afriade of death i welcome death.

Heehee i dared my dad and the mom of this one girl to drop us in the middle of the Ocala forest and see wich one makes it to a certan spot first.
HEEHEE thats just mean to the girl.