Scared of death

[ZenMusician]

Xibalba-

Very cool SN and post...I agree with about all of it.
I bet you would be a very interesting person to converse
with IRL.

-ZEN

[CAPSLOCKFTW]

Wow, thanks for posting, all of you. I'll still fear death but these posts will definitely make it easier. Especially your's WJL, very good points.

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]
First, you should remember that in the way the religious man BELIEVES in an afterlife, you BELIEVE in the absence of one. No matter how far science has come, it will always be unable to conclusively prove it's the end, so your "fear" or "anxiety" or "whatever" is pretty much structurally identical to that of a bad christian fearing hell.

[/ QUOTE ]

You will get alot of argument on this one, especially on these boards, but I agree with you.

-Al

[burningyen]

I like Xibalba's 1st post but actually disagree with most of it.

I disagree with the argument that the person who believes in an afterlife is on equal footing with the person who believes there is no afterlife. The problem with that argument is the same as the problem with the argument of “you can’t disprove God exists, and either he exists or he doesn’t, so the chances are 50:50 that he does.” Saying that a thing exists is qualitatively different from stating that a thing doesn’t exist or probably doesn’t exist. The burden of proof is on the person claiming the existence of the thing. That’s how science and factual knowledge works. We can disagree on the quality of the proof that has been offered over the millennia for the existence of an afterlife, but it shouldn’t be a subject for disagreement that at least initially the burden of proof starts with the side arguing for the existence of a thing.

I also disagree that living in blissful misunderstanding about the nature of death is better than fearful understanding of the truth. The problem is that it is possible, I hope, to have a true understanding of death and still live in peace and happiness with that knowledge. I’m not at that point yet, but it’s what I think we all shoot for. And I think getting caught in the trap of blissful misunderstanding stops you from progressing further to what should be the ultimate goal. If there is no way for you to reach that ultimate goal, then yes, maybe it is better to be ignorant than afraid.

[burningyen]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
First, you should remember that in the way the religious man BELIEVES in an afterlife, you BELIEVE in the absence of one. No matter how far science has come, it will always be unable to conclusively prove it's the end, so your "fear" or "anxiety" or "whatever" is pretty much structurally identical to that of a bad christian fearing hell.

[/ QUOTE ]

You will get alot of argument on this one, especially on these boards, but I agree with you.

-Al

[/ QUOTE ]
lol yep

[Patrick Bateman]

All,

I'm afraid of death for a few years now. It has its ups and downs but overall I was rather depressed thinking about death and the many ways you could die. I always thought it was a control issue: You can' control when you die. It seemed to be more than that though.

Anyways, I ended up with a shrink, therapy and medicine. The medicine worked like a charm 200% but old habits [censored] me up again and i am back where i started like 2 years ago.

Ahh. Nobody cares, but i dont care, its off my chest, thats why i came up clean just now in the first place.

[spentrent]

You're not going to know until you die so quit worrying about it you huge bagina.

[jjshabado]

[ QUOTE ]
The problem is that it is possible, I hope, to have a true understanding of death and still live in peace and happiness with that knowledge. I’m not at that point yet, but it’s what I think we all shoot for. And I think getting caught in the trap of blissful misunderstanding stops you from progressing further to what should be the ultimate goal. If there is no way for you to reach that ultimate goal, then yes, maybe it is better to be ignorant than afraid.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why is it the ultimate goal? What benefits are there to this "final goal" vs. a "blissful misunderstanding"? You could maybe make an argument that knowing the truth is better than not knowing it, but I don't really buy that. Plus, you don't know thats the truth. The reality is we're all ignorant of death, you'll never not be, until you die that is.

[aislephive]

I've only skimmed this thread, but I have some thoughts on the matter as well.

For the most part, I don't really fear death. At least I don't constantly think about it or really concern myself with it. It's going to happen sometime to everybody, what keeps me sane is that I don't know when or where it's going to happen. It could be tomorrow, it could be 5 years from now, or it could be 80 years from now. I've never really been much of a religious person, but my best friend during high school was the Pastor's son at a major christian church and as a result I went to various church related activities with him including youth group, normal sunday church (not too often though), etc. Anyways, I was over his house a ton and saw his mom and dad and how they acted when they weren't at church. They were pretty normal for the most part, but very serious people although they did a fair amount of joking around.

They knew that I really wasn't religious and always tried to push me to come to church more often. I kinda pushed away because I just couldn't get myself to buy into the whole religion thing. Too many aspects of religion in general don't sit right with me and don't make sense, not to mention modern science makes much of the bible look like nothing more than a bunch of tall tales.

The thing that scares me about death is when you know you're about to die. The minutes and seconds before it would be overwhelming for me. When I'm watching a tv show and one of the characters is having a gun pointed to their face and they know it's about to be all over, I try to imagine how I would be feeling in their shoes, and I get the chills every time I think about it.

The truth is we know nothing about what is going to happen after we die or what happened before we were born. For all we know, we could die and immediately be reborn as another human. Maybe we could be reborn as an animal, or an insect, or a tree, and the cycle goes on and on.

[pnazari]

I had the same thoughts that the OP is having now during second year of university. It got so bad that I couldn't sleep most nights, I would just lay in bed thinking about what death would "feel" like. I missed most of my lectures that semester and my grades suffered quite a bit.

I get a good night's sleep these days (does that make sense?) because I have come to accept death. There is still some underlying fear but I accept it. I realize I have no control over the situation and take the "let the chips fall where they may" attitude. That mindset helped me deal with it, hope it does the same for you.