Death

[godless dave]

My brother and his wife buried their 6-month-old daughter recently. I don't think humanity will ever get used to that. Some things will always feel sad and horrifying, no matter how often they happen.

 

[catsmate]

As individuals, we aren't used to it because it only happens once, and it's the last thing that happens.

This.

 

[I Ratant]

Well, fear of pain is pretty basic to humans, yet there are masochists. I don't think it's quite that simple.




I had heard that the prohibition on suicide was instituted in the early days when people really did commit suicide to skip right to the afterlife. A quick fix for a major oopsie! Don't recall where I read that or how well researched it seemed to be.

ETA: On re-reading your post, I guess you were actually saying the same thing.

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I remember hearing the Roman circuses had no lack of Christian volunteers, eager to leave the degrading life of a peasant to get to the promises of Heaven.
As suicide was not a bad practice in the Roman society to escape dire straits, it would be expected, I guess.
The impact on the collection plates on the Sabbath would be felt though, and something had to be done!

 

[Cainkane1]

I don't particularly fear my own death, I'd just rather put it off until I'm ready.

Humanity isn't a cohesive thing, it's lots of individuals with our own experiences of the deaths of others. None of us has any experience of our own death, so it's the great unknown.

154, why have you posted that link? It's just a list of reports of some people's deaths; some illnesses, some crimes, some accidents, some suicides.

When would you ever be ready? My stepdad wasn't ready and he was 93 years old. My grandmother lived to be 98 and she told me that the longer she lived the more she had to live for. Nobody is ready to die unless your in intolerable pain.

If a person who is contemplating suicide and they found a way to make the pain go away most would make the pain leave and continue living.

 

[Foster Zygote]

I'm just back from spending 4 weeks on holiday with my family, two of whom are JW's. Had a conversation with one evening and they wanted me to ask this question of the forum:

"Why are we afraid of death, why aren't we used to it?"

By "we" they mean all of humanity.

Please help, thanks!

The same reason sex feels so good and eating brings pleasure. An aversion to death results in a greater chance of passing on one's genes.

 

[Nichiro]

My brother and his wife buried their 6-month-old daughter recently. I don't think humanity will ever get used to that. Some things will always feel sad and horrifying, no matter how often they happen.

With Death of an offspring, A part of our own future dies.
Living is a lifelong experience.
Death is one time experience.

Felt sad when I read this.

 

[Kopji]

I'm just back from spending 4 weeks on holiday with my family, two of whom are JW's. Had a conversation with one evening and they wanted me to ask this question of the forum:

"Why are we afraid of death, why aren't we used to it?"

By "we" they mean all of humanity.

Please help, thanks!

Maybe to many of us, death is something we don't think much about until we need to.

But I don't see how religion looks very good in this light: A lifetime of listening to so-called spiritual authorities asserting that there is an afterlife and expounding on how to arrive there safely. Obey. Kneel. Believe. Yet there is still so much fear of death, and often guilt too. Seems not like time well spent.

Maybe the answer is to face the unknown - be it death or otherwise - with courage, grace, and a good sense of humor. Dance wherever you may be. The same strategy for facing life, is for facing death too.

 

[CriticalSock]

Thanks everyone! I printed this thread off at post #16, because I was going home, so my sister has read that far. her initial response was: "Everyone on your forum is more reasonable than you are." Which I think is a positive response.

 

[welshdean]

The thought of dying and being dead mortifies me (no pun intended). I know I came from nothing and didn't know it, but now that I'm here I don't want to go back to being nothing.

As a vampyre, you can only be 'undead'. Sounds cool.



I'm not afraid of death, as others have said, it's the dying part that sounds scary. To be fair, I'm not afraid of dying either, I simply just don't think about it. Maybe if I was diagnosed with a terminal condition I'd think about it more, as I am now, but I'd be more sad than scared. Sad not seeing my kids go through uni, fall in love, get married, have kids etc.
I equate the post-death state as equivalent to pre-birth, what's scary in that.

 

[Delphinium]

I equate the post-death state as equivalent to pre-birth, what's scary in that.

I'm the same, I think of it as going back into the state you were in before birth. So not fear of death, it's more about not wishing to die.

 

[Mahaha]

It's evolutionary smart to fear death. Every organism reacts to threats it can perceive, even bacteria. Otherwise we would have been extinct, maybe only organisms that reproduce really fast and adapt very quickly would still be here, but we wouldn't.

Some species bet on the quality of the life cicle/individual (mammals are the top example), while some on the quantity (bacteria).

Fear of threats and death is a fundamental primal instinct. We humans can elaborate it into something else, of course, and ignore the general fear for a distant death. But you put a person in a real life/death situation you see them transform... sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but is always fear of death that moves them.

 

[brenn]

I'm just back from spending 4 weeks on holiday with my family, two of whom are JW's. Had a conversation with one evening and they wanted me to ask this question of the forum:

"Why are we afraid of death, why aren't we used to it?"

By "we" they mean all of humanity.

Please help, thanks!

Because the sole motivator of humans is self-interest and death is usually contrary to our self-interest. Beyond that, most living things seem to have an instinct to avoid death, or else their species would no longer exist. Then you have the religious, who fear what will happen after death (regardless of what they claim publicly) and they have even more fear than the rest of us.

 

[iknownothing]

The process of getting dead is what I fear not being dead.

Yes, very much so. Too many ways of dying are painful looking.

My brother and his wife buried their 6-month-old daughter recently. I don't think humanity will ever get used to that. Some things will always feel sad and horrifying, no matter how often they happen.

That's just so wrong and unfair and horrible in so many ways.

When would you ever be ready?

I may never be ready 'quite yet'. As in, there will probably be something I'm curious about that I want to see resolved -- a TV show cliffhanger even.