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Thread: why does one fear death?

  1. #1
    Registered User pAranoiaTTack's Avatar
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    why does one fear death?

    first off, i was inspired to write this by the "What have you got to loose?" thread. and my response, simply stated, is my life.

    another thing, is that i feel somewhat inferior to the people on this board, partly due to my age and education. so please excuse any grammatical errors.



    so like the title reads, why does/would one fear death? and is it possible/when does one overcome that fear?


    why i fear it.
    i fear death mainly because, at the not so ripe age of 17, i have yet to experience all of the things i would like to...education, travel, books, visit family members as much i would like to, love/experience more of it, etc. (poor examples but you get the point)

    another thing that influences my opinion, is that i do not believe in an afterlife. since my life is all i have, i think it to be somewhat absurd for me to view death without apprehensiveness or with indifference.


    how one would overcome it.
    the only way i can imagine that one wouldent fear death is by having a 100% conviction that there is something beyond this life.(the only way i imagine this happening is by having a very persuasive personal experience, most likely with god/mary/jesus etc.) this is the only way that i believe soemone can have absolutly no fear of death. the slightest bit of doubt would be amplified so much, so that the last remaining moments of life(if one has the pleasure or displeasure of having thoes moments) would be spent either praying that there is a afterlife, contemplating that there isent, asking what they did what their life, and if it is complete.

    i believe the fear of death may also be escaped by being completely content with everything that one has done. this would entail that the individual has experienced EVERYTHING they have ever wanted to. i see this to be highly unlikely due to the infinite amount of things that one can experience.




    so my somewhat grim and very cliche conclusion would to "live life to the fullest. or, have a very persuasive personal experience with god.






    "One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are - your life, and nothing else."
    -sartre
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
    - Voltaire

  2. #2
    Inquisitive bloke ClaesGefvenberg's Avatar
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    Lightbulb

    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack View Post
    another thing, is that i feel somewhat inferior to the people on this board
    Judging from your writing here, that would seem to be uncalled for.

    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack View Post
    so like the title reads, why does/would one fear death? and is it possible/when does one overcome that fear?
    I honestly do not fear death as such... It is the the passage between life and death that scares me: Will it hurt? How is it going to happen?

    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack View Post
    another thing that influences my opinion, is that i do not believe in an afterlife. since my life is all i have, i think it to be somewhat absurd for me to view death without apprehensiveness or with indifference.
    Likewise...

    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack View Post
    i believe the fear of death may also be escaped by being completely content with everything that one has done.
    If you modify that statement to read "reasonably content" I will happily go along with that.

    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack View Post
    so my somewhat grim and very cliche conclusion would to "live life to the fullest. or, have a very persuasive personal experience with god.
    Not so grim, in my opinion. Life should be enjoyed. Besides, those who fear death the most often seem to fear life as well.

    /Claes
    Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

  3. #3
    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    I think it's a normal human reaction. It goes beyond rational conscious thought and linked to the nervous system.
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

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    rat in a strange garret Whifflingpin's Avatar
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    pAranoiaTTack : "so like the title reads, why does/would one fear death? and is it possible/when does one overcome that fear? "

    ClaesGefvenberg: "I honestly do not fear death as such... It is the the passage between life and death that scares me: Will it hurt? How is it going to happen?

    I agree with you ClaesGefvenberg. Death itself is unknowable and unimaginable, so it cannot truly be feared. (Maybe it is possible to create fearful ideas about death, for example Hell or darkness, and then be afraid of the invented idea.)

    Dying, on the other hand, in all its possibly horrible ways can give rise to very real and rational fears.

    ** ** **

    Virgil: "I think it's a normal human reaction. It goes beyond rational conscious thought and linked to the nervous system."

    Contrariwise, I think that there is no fear of death beyond rational conscious thought. The rational mind knows that death will occur, and considers possible versions of death that may generate fear.

    The "heart" however, does not accept that death will ever occur. We feel that we are immortal, even if we know that we are not.

    .
    Voices mysterious far and near,
    Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
    Are calling and whispering in my ear,
    Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?

  5. #5
    Boll Weevil cuppajoe_9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack
    another thing, is that i feel somewhat inferior to the people on this board, partly due to my age and education. so please excuse any grammatical errors.
    Welcome to Lit-Net. Don't worry, we're a fairly egalitarian bunch. There are no 'inferiors' on this board (except for everybody who is not a mod). You took your name from a song by the Faint, so you're already in my good books.

    English is a second or third language for the majority of the users on this board. The rest of us have consequently had to learn that grammatical errors are not an indication of reduced faculty of reason.
    Quote Originally Posted by pAranoiaTTack
    the only way i can imagine that one wouldent fear death is by having a 100% conviction that there is something beyond this life.
    Actually, I think I stopped being particularly afraid of death when I decided that there is no such place as hell. If that posibility is removed there's nothing to be afraid of, it's just a dreamless sleep or a change of scenery.
    What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
    - Gertrude Stein

    A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
    - Virginia Woolf

  6. #6
    life is but a dream
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    paranoid, welcome.

    I'm 17, as well. But I can honestly say that I no longer fear death. I quite look forward to it, actually. I feared death for the majority of my life. I feared pain and the unknown. I feared what was to come and what was not to come. I feared perishing and being imperminent, meaningless, stagnant, linear. What most people fear. People are afraid of death because there comes a time in our human lives when we realize that "we ain't gonna live forever" and make a stark change, either in thought or in action or both. We realize that this flesh that we reside in ages and withers away and our minds become putty. It is hard to grasp, especially for young people (I would say "young people like us" but I don't feel too young). --Alina
    I only wanted to live in accord with the promptings that came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?

  7. #7
    dum spiro, spero Nossa's Avatar
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    I think it's only normal that one can fear death, not for anything other than it's the "unknown"...I mean you get scared of anything you don't know...you're scared and worried about a job interview, cuz you don't know wether it'll go well or not, what they'll ask and so on...
    So simply, the fact that we don't have anything to tell us what exactly will happen to us after out hearts stop beating, this makes us scared...
    I have something to say about how having faith in a life beyond this life can make you have no fear of death..
    Actually, I'm a strong believer, and I believe in God and the life beyond this life...but that doesn't mean that I don't fear death...in the sense that, I do wrong things in my life, and I'll sure be asked about them from God when I die...that's how I see it actually..and I think that THIS concept exactly is what makes believer and non believers differ, the fact that the later doesn't believe in the exsistance of God and so they're not afraid of doing anything wrong, but they might fear death cuz, as I mentioned before, it's a human nature to be afraid of the unknown...on the other hand believers who do believe in God's exsistance are afraid cuz they know they'll be asked about all what they've done in thier lives..and so on...
    I'm the patron saint of the denial,
    With an angel face and a taste for suicidal.

  8. #8
    ღ Déjà vu ღ miss tenderness's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil View Post
    I think it's a normal human reaction. It goes beyond rational conscious thought and linked to the nervous system.

    yes ,very true.

  9. #9
    Any person who fears death simply hasn’t thought about the subject long enough.

    The only way fear of death would apply for me is if I thought there might be an unreliable, unjust supreme being out there . . . in that case the afterlife is a crapshoot, and there's nothing you could have done about it, anyway.

    Death is not to be feared.

    “All goes outward and onward, nothing collapses,
    and to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.”
    As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .


    Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.



  10. #10
    Bookworm89 Bookworm89's Avatar
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    To quote Shakespeare: "But that the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." I think that sums it up. As a Christian, though, I see nothing to be feared in death. It does seem a bit overwhelming, a permanent change in lifestyle, but not fearsome.

  11. #11
    Registered User Themis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ShoutGrace View Post
    Any person who fears death simply hasn’t thought about the subject long enough.
    I find myself thinking more and more about it. And yet I fear it. Or rather, I fear not death itself but rather what comes after it.
    I do cling to the hopes of an afterlife but I have trouble believing it. If I did, wholeheartedly believe in it, I probably would not be scared. But I don't and I fear the end.
    I've talked to my mother about it and she thinks that everything will end, once you're dead, that you just won't exist anymore. That distresses me because I can imagine it - I thought it must be like when you're going to sleep,normally one can't remember when exactly sleep overcame one. I know it's silly because should it happen that way, I won't care once I'm dead but since I am still alive ... I do worry about it.
    “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”- Robert McCloskey

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    Banned Turk's Avatar
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    I am not scared of death till i fell in love with a girl around 1,5 year ago.

    I wasn't scared. Because when death come, i'll be gone. So there's nothing to fear. But now i fear of leaving her without me . I should live, for people i love. That's why i fear death since 1,5 year.

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    We fear death because we have been conditioned to do so. It is all part of the grand scheme to Manipulate the population thru religion. Do what I say or ye will go to hell. Give me your money or you are selfish and evil.

  14. #14
    Ataraxia bazarov's Avatar
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    To quote Joyce: People are afraid of death because they like life too much.
    At thunder and tempest, At the world's coldheartedness,
    During times of heavy loss And when you're sad
    The greatest art on earth Is to seem uncomplicatedly gay.

    To get things clear, they have to firstly be very unclear. But if you get them too quickly, you probably got them wrong.
    If you need me urgent, send me a PM

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    Professional Crastinator Hyacinth42's Avatar
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    I think we fear death as a survival instinct imprinted in us, but I think that intellectually I don't fear death. I may fear the actual act and would rather not die yet.

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