Fear of Death: A Philosophical Inquiry into Coping with Uncertainty

[firstwave]

I look at death from another more intuitive angle. Though I don't believe in any religion, I still believe that when one dies, his spirit does not.

Death, according to me, only occurs to the organic species. We, human beings, are composed of organic parts as well as spiritual parts. I think when we die, our organic parts rot and disintegrate; but, our spiritual parts are indestructable. What happens to our spirits, I do not know, but I believe in the existence of spirit.

Personally, I am not really afraid of death. I only feel sad for the people who care about me. I have had two near-death experiences and neither of them seemed scary. In fact, I think when one's about to die, he would feel really calm. I agree somewhat with someone who said that when one dies, his brain releases a substance that calms the body.

 

[moose]

In fact, I think when one's about to die, he would feel really calm. I agree somewhat with someone who said that when one dies, his brain releases a substance that calms the body.

When I had a near-death experience a few years ago, I was everything but calm. I had a horrible feeling/taste in my mouth and kept thinking that I can't die, and that I don't want to die...

 

[WhiteWolf]

Well, because all organisms have a will to live, and not just people, I do not believe that it is an emotional matter, or a matter of fear. It quite possibly be broken down to evolution. If an organism does not have the will to live, it will perish. If it perishes, then those that did not have the will to live will not pass on its genetic legacy. So it is naturally favorable to have a will to live, and thus have a desire to defeat death with any means possible.

But if I was to take a more philosphical look at it, and not so much of a practical look, then I would have to say that living is most likely pointless, but by continuing to live, you may find some interesting things. Like how I found physics, which may provide me (and us) with the ultimate meaning and/or purpose to life.

Al-Qaeda is yet another USA funded and trained "operation",
just like Saddam, Bin Laden, and the Taliban. Just like Hamas
is but an Israeli "operation" when one gets right down to it...
My point is, this climate of fear being coerced around us all -
through the "War of Terror" and natural disasters - has a BIG
effect on making people FEARFUL of death. Because, oh my,
around any corner might be one of those suicide bombers!
Or one of those hurricanes might kill you! Or... (get it yet?)
Why does one fear death? Because other people make death
so damn SCARY! People like G.W. Bush and Rumsfeld do much
to make people fear death. Hollywood tries really hard, too...

Where did that come from, I am sorry, but I find that rather rediculous...

 

[Human Being]

I'd like to reiterate my recent point, concerning a "different" way of
interpretting the open-ended question, "why does one fear death?"
In a previous post on pg. 3 of this thread, I gave a more traditional
analysis of why people fear death. There's another way to answer.

Like any other piece of knowledge, people learn about death from a
"teacher" who has already learned about death. Parent, friend, etc.

Knowledge of death and other issues which directly involve humans,
gradually accumulate into a worldview that affects decision making.

A person's worldview is shaped by their belief system - which is yet
another piece of knowledge acquired from one or more "teachers"...

Organized religion's often the foundation of a person's belief system.
Hence, it shapes their worldview, and thus their thoughts on death.

Eventually, most U.S. citizens become exposed to mass media daily
doses of death in their news and "entertainment". Images of death.

Ultimately, many U.S. citizens become afraid of death, not because
death itself scares them, but because all the imagery scares them!

This imagery most definitely includes that which their belief system
associates with death. Eternal damnation often comes to the mind.


Why does one fear death? Now, I have given two analyses of why.
Comments PLEASE. What good are my words if they inspire noone?

 

[Human Being]

Where did that come from, I am sorry, but I find that rather rediculous...

Critical_Pedagogy wrote:
"Living as long as possible is everyone's wish. Unless you're Al-Qaeda."

That's where my statements came from.
Depending on perspective, what CP said
is far more ridiculous than what I said...

His final three words inspired me to think
about how current events affect people,
specifically regarding their fear of death.

 

[sameandnot]

I fear dying before GR and quantum theory are unified.

flotsam, you need to... if you haven't yet, emplore the "quantum potential" and the "explicate and implicate orders" of david bohm. he co-authored a book with f. david peats called, "science, order and creativity" this book is genius, i promise you. if you understand what is meant by the "quantum potential" you will gain invaluable insight into the wave/particle duality, non-locality, quantum mechanics in general, and it will reveal to you great insight into the unification of relativity and quantum mechanics. he has gone much unnoticed, perhaps due to the rigidity of many scientific minds. (this, i perceive, is clearly evident, often, in this forum and in others, through the obvious closed-ness of mind and attachment to theories as assumed to be rock-solid parameters of reality.)... scientists must open their minds, but you can't make anyone do this... afterall it is much more comfortable to be where it's familiar and seemingly safe, rather than where It's at.

 

[Hessam]

I would say that it is more of a fear of the unknown...

but hey, that's just me

 

[sameandnot]

I would say that it is more of a fear of the unknown...
but hey, that's just me

good point.

 

[Human Being]

Of course people *often* fear death because they fear the unknown. And death is *the* biggest unknown a human being will ever personally experience. Everyone already knows that. Take that premise, and expand upon it.

There may be more than four basic groups of people, but humor me:

Group A does not fear unknowns, and they feel like they know enough about death to disqualify it from being an unknown in their mind. Members of this group are highly likely to not fear death. Possible examples: devout believers in a world religion, highly (and genuinely) spiritual people.
Group B does not fear unknowns, but they feel like death is an unknown in their mind. Members of this group are somewhat likely to not fear death. Possible example: "fair-weather" believers in a world religion
Group C does fear unknowns, but they feel like they know enough about death to disqualify it from being an unknown in their mind. Members of this group are somewhat likely to not fear death. Possible examples: ?
Group D does fear unknowns, and they feel like death is an unknown in their mind. Members of this group are highly likely to fear death. Possible examples: "morally corrupt" believers in a world religion, criminals.

Yes, there are other factors which can contribute to fear of death that don't involve its status as known/unknown in one's mind. But that was just an overview of one way to look at the question.

Outside the scope of this thread, but equally intriguing, is the question, "how does one handle the fear of death?"

 

[uknova]

im absolutely terrified of dying, i think most people are.

just the idea of never thinking another thought scares me, I am not a religious person but i hope there is something after

 

[mathwonk]

not everyone fears death. i have read of swordsmen who conquered the fear of death in connection with their service to their emperor, in zen treatises.

I also temporarily overcame my fear of death once while resisting the US government during the Vietnam war. My reasoning was to determine how I could overcome my fear of the government, so they could not restrict my thoughts and actions against the war.

I reasoned that the worst thing they could do to me was to imprison and kill me, so I decided I would not fear that, if it happened it happened and i would continue my resistance anyway. At that point i became extremely free in my actions. I did and said whatever seemed right to me.

Unfortunately, or inevitably, I became so free that I began to run into a lot of resistance from police. When I saw injustice, such as police beating or harassing innocent people, instead of shying away I objected vociferously. The police response was to repeatedly arrest me to force me to be quiet, or to beat me or abuse me. I was sent to hospital at least once, and jail more than once, even though innocent of any crime or wrongdoing, merely not obeying policemen who told me to be quiet and not to object while they were abusing their authority. After a while this got burdensome and painful.

he who does not fear the authorities must bear a lot of abuse from them. remember how many times the civil rights soldiers of the 60's were beaten, hosed, jailed, lied about, abused, harassed, and many of them killed before the ultimate victory of redress before the law.we have still not overcome all this wrong. This vbery week marks not only MLK's birthday, but also the passage of a repressive poll tax in Georgia in the guise of an "identification card" for voters. It seems clearly designed to reduce voter participation by old and poor and minorities, who cannot easily afford the $5 fee, or the transportation to the locations where the cards are available.There is also a candidate for supreme court about to be confirmed, Judge Alito, who had boasted about his membership in a group whose stated goal reportedly included restricting attendance by women and minorities at Princeton University.

These things, and many more such as presidential wiretaps without authorization, are amazing evils in 2006 America, and maybe can only be resisted by people willing to brave anything, even die, as few of us are.

 

[mathwonk]

very old people also do not fear death, not physical death, because they have already suffered the death of their desires and dreams and ambitions. i.e. they have either realized them all, or lost the ability to pursue them further. many people do not wish to live when they have lost their physical and mental abilities, and are unable even to live where they would choose, or with those whom they would choose. it is well known that pneumonia is called the "old person's friend".

i do not wish to die, but i am more concerned at losing the motivation to do my job well each day, to be cheerful to my family and friends and students, to aspire to learn more, to produce more knowledge, to help better my world.

to do none of these would be death of the spirit, to become useless, and live a pointless life.

 

[Treadstone 71]

Erdos and Euler died in the best way possible: doing math until the bitter end.