Do you fear death?

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Edit: Apologies to anyone feeling a bit confused, I posted in the wrong thread.

OT, I don't fear death. I've accepted that it is something that's got to happen as part of the natural cycle. Living forever sounds pretty daunting anyway. My only real wish in this area is to live long enough to see the next century. With the pace medicine is advancing, I don't think it's an unrealistic goal.

I don't believe in an afterlife either. With no real evidence to suggest it presently, I think it's most sensible to assume that we just cease to exist once the brain shuts down. With that assumption, if there is some kind of afterlife, I can only be pleasantly surprised.

If there is one, you may or may not be very pleasantly surprised. How would you know for sure that you'd have a good afterlife? Or is there was a good afterlife, and if there were, what would determine who got in good and who didn't? This is all assuming there is an afterlife.

To me, some kind of existence is probably better than none, but you raise a good point. Another thing to think about is, couldn't an eternal existence get boring after a while? The answer to any of these questions can't truly be answered, not in any meaningful way anyhow.

I don't really fear death itself. Maybe this is one of the positive aspects of depression. I used to fear death more when I was happier about life. I do sometimes feel upset over aging, but that’s not fear so much so sadness. I sometimes get the feeling that every new day is the death of the previous day. That the future is the death of the past. I don’t know quite how to describe this emotion.

I don't fear death.

No, I don't. I've been wanting to die since elementary school.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeGpsTls9YQ[/youtube]

Death in the long run, no. But there are a few things I'd like to achieve before I die - so I suppose I fear death until I've done them. And I guess I'd rather not die alone, so I fear that too. But plain old death? As long as it comes at a time that vaguely suits me, I'll be ok with it.

No, I don't fear death. I fear the dying. I also fear dying at a bad time.

I don't believe that there's a place of eternal damnation and suffering for unfaithful souls, such a belief is ridiculous. Not even Jews believe that trash. I don't really hold a belief about the afterlife. If there's nothing, fine by me. If it's like dreaming, great. If I'm a floating brain(Consciousness) able to travel about and observe the universe or whatever, wonderful. If I'm reincarnated, ok. If I'm like a spirit/soul/ghost, that'd be swell. Whatever, I'll cope.

When I was a kid I'd dream about the afterlife often.

I tend to automatically correlate death and physical pain, so, I don't fear death, simply the physical effects I might experience before I die. I do not believe in any kind of afterlife, recurrence, etc. Once you die, that's it.

And that really doesn't scare me. If I haven't done x, seen y, or fullfilled n number of 'before I dies,' then it's really not going to matter when I die, and with no afterlife, I won't get the luxury of regret.

Whats open to you today, to see, to experience, is all there is. When that precise moment of death arrives, all you have is an accumulation of memories, scenes of some personal import. Are they forgotten? Probably. But some things are too wonderful to share.

I don't want to die, however--there are things I'd like to do and see before death--but even if it were to happen now, I wouldn't be afraid--just curious.

I've come to terms with my morality with the whole having seizures and cracking my head open thing so I'd say no. It has also caused me to be morbid and generally fit the "goth" profile when it comes to how I view life/ the world.

like snake321 and mike i know and feel fear of painful lingering humiliating excruciating death.

Of death itself i am not conscious of feeling fear, but i think that i must do, because of little signs; for instance when Michael Crichtons book "Fear" convinced me, with the help of Bjorn Lombergs book "The Sceptical Ecologist" which i read as as backup research, that i was far more likely to die prematurely from smoking than from catastrophic climate change; i stopped smoking, smoothly and almost "unthinkingly" within days of finishing the two books. Suddenly realising that there might actually be a future to look forward to over the next 50 years or so made my previous attitude ( doomsday scenarios) look like sour grapes. I "wanted" the world to end soon because that way i wouldn't miss anything. EVERYBODY would die at the same time as me.

And i think it's possible that my profound and utterly unconscious fear of death extends to an unconsciously driven creeping paralysis of all investment in anything which might take time to bear fruit, a panic in the face of long term plans, to an incapacity for any kind of project taking more than a few days, to a driven inability to settle to anything which seems slow and unimpressive to begin with, because i am afraid i'll die before i finish it, afraid that i'll die before it has become worthwhile.

Something odd, even odder than the stopping smoking 2 years ago, has been happening to me the last few days, and became clear today when i completed a colour drawing for the first time in almost 4 years. I have started drawing again, black and white the last few days, and today in colour. The last time this happened was in spring 2004 which is when i last believed in god. Until last month, when i decided to believe in god again.

I think i am terrified of death. I am paralysed like a wild animal in headlights, i am unable to move for fear of death, except perhaps when i believe in god. will see how things develop!!

Last edited by ouinon on 09 Feb 2008, 4:08 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLelxlmkMrQ&feature=related[/youtube]

I'm not afraid of death anymore, but I'm not actively pursuing it, either. I like pizza a lot. I like chocolate cheesecake, too. Also White Castle cheeseburgers, cupcakes, Coca-Cola, Pop-Tarts, omlets, Honey Nut Cheerios, etc. As long as I can buy the things I like, why die?

people aren't afraid of death itself, but they ARE afraid of the unknown.

no one knows whats on the other side of the light.
I think you go into a different dimention when you die...

Speak for yourself

As i said, two or three posts back, very clearly; i AM afraid of death itself. It is not the same as the unknown. We know that at death our bodies shut down and then decompose, that our brains cease activity, that our existence on earth as ourselves, (ouinon, Kris94, etc), is OVER.
I know that this terrifies me, (even if i manage to suppress awareness of my fear almost all of the time), and think that it is probable, as i said two posts back, that this fear produces/has increasingly produced in me a kind of immobility, or paralysis, preventing active creative investment in long term projects, plans, efforts. ( recently renewed belief in god may change this; have to see if that helps, so far i'm drawing again as i said, but that may have more to do with seeing some point in creation than feeling less fear about the end).

MY fear of death is not only, or even principally, fear of the unknown.