Thread: Are you afraid of death?

I would happily die a miserable, painful death for the absolute knowledge of an afterlife where I would eternally be happy or at peace. Or probably even one where I just existed

You could consider me very narcissistic for thinking like this, but I don't like the idea of being removed from the world. Of course, nobody knows what is after death, but I like to assume that there is no afterlife. However, I do not fear death. Many people wonder what it is like being dead and wonder what it will feel like. For those, I have a very simple answer:
What did it feel like before you were born?

I fear leaving before my life's lesson has been achieved, and the safety and comfort of the family that i might leave behind. I don't really fear "death". I believe that my energy will blend back into the universe, where i will again be one with everything, and choose my next lesson.

that's just me though.

Originally Posted by deeznuts

I fear leaving before my life's lesson has been achieved, and the safety and comfort of the family that i might leave behind. I don't really fear "death". I believe that my energy will blend back into the universe, where i will again be one with everything, and choose my next lesson.

that's just me though.

That is beautiful.

Originally Posted by oniman7

I would happily die a miserable, painful death for the absolute knowledge of an afterlife where I would eternally be happy or at peace. Or probably even one where I just existed

when you're there, you'll know more. when you're here, you're experiencing life in this realm. this "life" isn't easy, nor is it peaceful, but as i've been "told", you chose this lesson. if you neglect it, you're going to repeat it. perhaps under a different circumstance, but you'll come back to the lesson that you failed in. i don't think like this all of the time and it's hard to keep in mind, given the constant unquantifiable interactions of life, you're here for a reason and YOU chose it! apparently, "simply existing", got a little tiresome.

here's a better way of thinking of it...... try to be a better person, and apply it in your life. you're going to get your ass run over alot until your figure out who's worth helping, but if you pay attention to it, you're going to assimilate the knowledge. still, you're going to feel a little used. do it because you want to help, not because you're going to immediately gain from the experience. give and don't expect, and watch less bullshit TV. ;-] that helps too.

life a continual lesson, and when you stop learning, you've either failed, or you're dead.

I don't believe I am afraid to die, although I do not wish to go before I decide I'm ready. Knowing that this is probably impossible, as with most things, I will accept it as it comes (like I have a choice anyway, but better to embrace it than reject it until the very end). Truth be told, I am more afraid not to die at some point. I wish for "me" to continue existing in some way, but whether or not you do can never happen if you live eternally as a human. If it turns out all that is "you" completely dissolves and after death I am no more, then I am only suffering the fate that all living things before me have. I am not special, I deserve nothing better--it is the natural way.

Who all wants to do this?

I am afraid of death a lot. Usually everytime I started thinking about it and what would be after I die or what would world be without me or what if I wasn't even born? my hear started to pound like crazy and I felt an instant rush of adrenaline streaming straight into my heart...

Originally Posted by Karloky

I am afraid of death a lot. Usually everytime I started thinking about it and what would be after I die or what would world be without me or what if I wasn't even born? my hear started to pound like crazy and I felt an instant rush of adrenaline streaming straight into my heart...

Same here, for the longest time. I had a huge existential crisis awhile ago, that lasted ages, where it was just on my mind all the time. Finally I'm more relaxed; the inevitable will come, just like it does for everyone. It's a natural part of this experience which I cannot let my ego deny, despite as much as it wants to. This is undeniably just part of the process, I am finally allowing that to be part of the reality of things. As much as I don't want it to, it will. Plants die, decompose, germinate more plants. Even if I don't have "me" to associate with, I want my body to do something for the rest of the natural cycle of things. I almost want to be buried in a forest, I dunno. I feel like I can only have closure with death if I know that I'm going to be joining the natural impersonal cycle of things on this earth.

I personally do not fear death. The biggest reason, I think, is that I believe in the afterlife. Since I believe in God, and therefore believe that when my body dies my spirit will live on, I have nothing to fear from death. I look at death as a brand new adventure, and look forward to getting some of the answers I've always wanted. Just imagine, everything we've ever wondered about the afterlife, and we finally get to see it for ourselves. While I'm in no big hurry to die, I do look forward to it, because for me death is really just the start of a new existence.

I believe that, when we die, we simply cease to be. Some may find this belief depressing, but I find it rather consoling. I won't feel anything. Sure, I will feel no pleasure, but I will also feel no pain. I will have no worries or concerns. I simply will not be.

I do not necessarily fear death. My beliefs grant me nothing to fear. I don't want to die -- I will prevent my death however I can if I think it's worth it -- but I don't really fear death. I remember hearing that, when an animal thinks it will die, it will panic and try to fight or flee; but when an animal knows it will die, it is calm. And what am I but another animal?

I want to clarify something Dragon, lest someone get the wrong idea. Like you, I will do whatever I can to preserve my life; simply because I want to enjoy this world and spend as much time in it as possible. That said, I look forward to the inevitable time when there will be nothing I can do, when death eventually comes knocking. Just don't want everyone thinking I'm some suicidal maniac with a death wish :p

I've never believed in God, but now I'm not really sure if life just 'ends'. I mean, it's a feeling that can not be explained. I can't imagine how that ''dead-state'' is, like before you were born, and that thought is what really scares me, not death.

I ain't afraid of the death atm, but I think if a man points a gun at me (in a serious, movie like way), I'll be afraid of death.

The knowledge that death is something that I will one day experience is fascinating to me.
The curiosity over death is the force that drives me to Lucid Dreaming.
Death, or the fascination of it compells me to do many more things as I get older.

I have only just found this thread, and will go back to the first post, and read through all the replies so far.

I used to be really afraid of dying, to the point I didn't like to think about it when I was a kid. As I started to get older, I started to become less afraid. I was just beginning to realize that to be afraid of it served no purpose. It was hard for me to fully emotionally acknowledge that I really would not exist any more, but it started to grow on me. Day present, I now almost fear what it would be like if I didn't die. I almost embrace death, but only choose to continue living because death is an inevitability, so why not experience more before dying. However, if in the future you were somehow given the choice to accept a technology that could keep you from dying or to refuse and die right then, I would choose to die.

We had a talk in a class earlier this week. The teacher asked 'If you knew exactly when and how you were going to die. How would you live'. A lot of people said that they would try and accomplish everything they wanted to do and achieve their goals before that moment. Some brought up the idea of 'not going to your death' by not getting out of bed that morning, not eating that cereal, or staying away from a window.

I disagree with them ^^. We're all going to die someday anyways, so why does knowing the moment of your death change what you should do in live. You should always try to achieve what you want and know that death is always going to be there anyways. If I were to know my moment of death, sure, it may change my perspective on things, but on that die I was supposed to die, I personally would willingly go about my day normally. Death will be there, no matter what, so why should we try to evade it when the time comes?

So, I'm not afraid of death itself. It's going to happen, and there's nothing to do about it. I don't think a lot of people are afraid of death itself, but rather fear what comes after death, the unknown, which is why people have come up with beliefs such as reincarnation, heaven, etc. It's so they have something to believe so they don't have to fear the unknown.

Originally Posted by Spenner

Same here, for the longest time. I had a huge existential crisis awhile ago, that lasted ages, where it was just on my mind all the time. Finally I'm more relaxed; the inevitable will come, just like it does for everyone. It's a natural part of this experience which I cannot let my ego deny, despite as much as it wants to. This is undeniably just part of the process, I am finally allowing that to be part of the reality of things. As much as I don't want it to, it will. Plants die, decompose, germinate more plants. Even if I don't have "me" to associate with, I want my body to do something for the rest of the natural cycle of things. I almost want to be buried in a forest, I dunno. I feel like I can only have closure with death if I know that I'm going to be joining the natural impersonal cycle of things on this earth.

You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen.

-Aaron Freeman.

Words I think you would find comforting.

Right now, I do not fear death. It is one of those things that is, for me, easy not to fear because it is inevitable. I might fear the pain that goes along with death, or the situation that causes my death, but not death itself. Similarly to this view, I associate sleeping with death. I love to sleep, dreams or not. If I die, I won't have anything to worry about because I'll be dead. More accurately, I won't be I at all, unless "I" means anything more than my role in society. There is nothing to fear, for if your consciousness has terminated (or at least put on hold, depending on what you believe), there is no fear.

This confuses me a lot...how can I not exist? I've existed since I started existing, I don't know anything else. How can I "not be"? I can't "not be" alive, because I will be dead. I can't even be dead, because if I'm dead and I don't exist, I can't be dead, because there's no I.

Please afterlife which I don't believe in, reveal yourself when I die and make me immortal and once again ignorant. Because I'd die if I ever had to stop existing. If this all makes sense Just hope I die without knowing I'm dying, that way I'll never die, because when I exist I will still be alive, but the moment I die I will no longer exist, so I will never die. Immortality achieved! (No, I'm not drunk, just trying to reason through this concept of non-existence)

I don't fear death nor do I want to die, because I not only want to see the future but take part in it. I'm not too concerned with the afterlife for 2 reasons:

• There can be no proof of God, nor can it be disproven.
• I have no idea what the affect of my life on others will bring tomorrow, regardless of the effect it has on me today.

This is why I've never understood 'To be, or not to be is the question' as one of the most important, if not the only important question in philosophy; suicide is easily dismissed through simple logic. I suppose I can assign fear to my hesitation of the actual act of death, but the consequences are out of my hands, or so I believe since I'm spiritual.

I don't actively fear death every day of my life, and at times I convince myself that I do not fear death, but only the act of dying.

But I have been confronted with situations time and again when this bullshit has been crushed utterly. When I am facing immediate death, the mindset changes. The prospect of reality never being the same, of everything that is part of my identity being ripper asunder and obliterated, of not TRULY knowing what is going to happen - These things can be completely terrifying.

rums - I personally disagree that 'to be or not to be' is actually about suicide, I think that Shakespeare was trying to show the act of becoming through Hamlet. Rather than it meaning should I kill myself or not, I think that he was trying to say something more like who should I be? the killer, the mourner, the psycho, the hero, the man of conscience, the blind man that perpetuates the cycle of revenge?
Sorry, a little off-topic
But I do believe that the consequences of death are out of our hands, and I'm sure that we will all find out what they are soon enough

Originally Posted by anotherdreamer

rums - I personally disagree that 'to be or not to be' is actually about suicide, I think that Shakespeare was trying to show the act of becoming through Hamlet. Rather than it meaning should I kill myself or not, I think that he was trying to say something more like who should I be? the killer, the mourner, the psycho, the hero, the man of conscience, the blind man that perpetuates the cycle of revenge?
Sorry, a little off-topic
But I do believe that the consequences of death are out of our hands, and I'm sure that we will all find out what they are soon enough

I used that expression to ease into my suicide comment, I thought it would be too weird as a lead-in and didn't want anyone to think I was a loon. It's been said suicide is the only important question worth debating in philosophy, and since this is a philosophy thread about death I figured it'd be best to include it in the discussion, even though I personally think it's a weak talking point other than the what the actual act would feel like.

The only fear death should bring to us imo is the physical part, is this going to hurt? That's all I was trying to convey with this:

• There can be no proof of God, nor can it be disproven.
• I have no idea what the affect of my life on others will bring tomorrow, regardless of the effect it has on me today.

If someone who fears the afterlife can read and truly accept those two points, they'll understand if God does exist it surely won't punish us because man's default setting is ignorance.

Originally Posted by Rums03

I used that expression to ease into my suicide comment, I thought it would be too weird as a lead-in and didn't want anyone to think I was a loon. It's been said suicide is the only important question worth debating in philosophy, and since this is a philosophy thread about death I figured it'd be best to include it in the discussion, even though I personally think it's a weak talking point other than the what the actual act would feel like.

That question is extremely interesting. No one has ever constituted why we should live, largely because it's intrinsically linked to the meaning of life. As long as you don't know the meaning of life, then whether you should live or die becomes undefined. It creates confusion because there is no right action to take when something is undefined. I really like this point, because essentially not knowing the meaning of life is just as bad as there being no meaning of life.