Fear of death

[Perhaps]

I'm looking forward to the singularity and the point when stem cells are able to preserve life for thousands of years. I don't want eternity, but a few hundred years of learning would suffice.

[UNoSonnn]

I chose other because I'm not sure if there is an "afterlife". I'm not scared to reach the next step, and most of what I do know about the human brain dictates that I will cease to exist, but there is some things that I don't understand which makes me question what is next, after death.

While I have come to the conclusion that heaven and hell does not exist (thank God/Allah, little baby Jesus, Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Osiris, Thor, Adele, George Carlin, Tupac and Biggie) I do not understand human consciousness. Until I have an understanding of why I am aware and why I am me, myself and I, then I can never fully dismiss an afterlife. Maybe we are reincarnated, just not in the sense of Hindu teachings. Maybe our thought patterns are replicated, and we exist without the memories of past lives. Maybe our "energy" goes out and does something sadistic, moral, or perverted. I'm banking on I just cease to exist though.

When I totally dismissed not having "eternal life", I realized that there is so much I wanted to learn and see. Instead of worrying about an afterlife, I was currently inhabiting a life that was curious and didn't bother to understand many of the universe wonders. I only have one life, and I better get to enjoy it, because it can end so quick. Why did Jupiter put me into this fragile body??? Was it to piss me off???

Finally getting to the point, I'm not scared of death. I don't know what is next, even though I can speculate. I'm afraid of dying with intense pain, and I'm afraid that I can not enjoy the spectacle of the human experience completely.

[Welsh cake]

I don't want eternity, but a few hundred years of learning would suffice.

Several hundred years more? That'll never be enough for you.

I recall watching a funny cartoon called Xiaolin Showdown with my sisters and in it was a dragon who had lived for thousands of years. In an episode he was faced with the prospect of an untimely death, he reflected on how much of a good long life he had. He paused, then screamed "I WANT TO LIVE!", I laughed so hard because it was true.

You're not accepting death perhaps, by asking for more, you're delaying the inevitable. You're still paralysed by fear. Should you be given, through natural or unnatural means, an extra several hundred years more to your existing lifespan and come to the end of that period you'll demand several hundred years more.

[ThinkingTom]

Anyway, I was wondering what anyone here would suggest I do to overcome this fear of mine because its always in the back of my head bothering me. Being dead doesn't scare me, dying doesn't scare me (Not sure why) but the fact that it lasts for eternity is what scares me. I know once I'm dead I won't have any consciousness or realize time passing but now that I'm alive and well that bothers me. People have told me that acceptance is the key but I'm having a real hard time accepting it, could someone give me some advice or something along the lines? This has gone on for to long.

I guess you'd have to clarify further as to how you do not fear death but fear the fact that it's eternal. If you are dead, why does it matter for how long?

Because it doesn't end, just the concept of eternity is what scares me. I know this probably sounds really stupid from your point of view but just the fact that once I'm dead I won't get another go at life. I guess its because there are so many things I want to try and experience but 80-100 years (If lucky) isn't enough time for them all., We all have once giant timer that eventually runs out, thinking about this is wasting my time and that's what annoys me I think.

The only thing that comforts me slightly is knowing that even though my consciousness might be lost but parts of me will be part of this universe for basically eternity. Gosh I wish reincarnation was real so then I wouldn't have to face eternity!

[Godscreated]

I remember a quote by one of the ancient philosophers that said (VERY loosely):

"Where I am, Death is not, and where Death is, I am not. Why should it then be of concern to me?"

(I just got the gist of the quote and struggled to phrase it as closely as I can, forgive me!) I personally find that quote really comforting, even though there have been times when I was consumed with the thought of my own demise. I'd say my fear of Death stems from the fear of irrelevance, of simply passing into the nothingness of history, another patch of dirt people will tread upon without further thought, another statistic. I'd very much like to change the world before I pass, and before that happens I doubt I'd be able to rest in peace...

..although as many users before me have already said, it probably won't matter in the end. :/

Compared to an eternity death is just around the corner, waiting in it's silence to take hold of you, to relieve you of all your dreams and thoughts, to put a silence to your voice, never to be heard from again. Everyone should fear death for what it does to those that are left behind.

[Welsh cake]

Because it doesn't end, just the concept of eternity is what scares me. I know this probably sounds really stupid from your point of view but just the fact that once I'm dead I won't get another go at life.

Eternal oblivion is not a terrifying ordeal or disturbing like life can be at times. You won't know you're dead, or ever alive to begin with, no different from going into a very deep sleep.

I guess its because there are so many things I want to try and experience but 80-100 years (If lucky) isn't enough time for them all., We all have once giant timer that eventually runs out, thinking about this is wasting my time and that's what annoys me I think.

Yes I can see where you're coming from, but that's as senseless as regretting you'll never get to live or experience the dinosaurs - living breathing sauropods wandering through dense woodland. For example, I'll never get to experience a day in 1950s Britain with steam locomotives racing up and down the countryside. Heck, the Universe is some 13 billion years old, we've both missed countless events already. So what? We had to be born, live and die right here, right now in this time, otherwise we would not be.

Gosh I wish reincarnation was real so then I wouldn't have to face eternity!

Okay, then you'll have to endure eternity being endlessly reincarnated over and over again. With each life you'll carry the fear of death and desperate struggle to survive over in the next. The next life you could return as a bacterium, ingested by a larger life-form you'll die quickly, and reappear as a mayfly, live only a few hours then die, then you'll come back as, and so on, and so on. You'd suffer an incalculable amount of pain and hardship...

I wouldn't wish reincarnation on anyone.

Compared to an eternity death is just around the corner, waiting in it's silence to take hold of you, to relieve you of all your dreams and thoughts, to put a silence to your voice, never to be heard from again.

Sounds very peaceful to me. Life has denied most of my dreams and drowned out my thoughts with its maddening chaos anyway. Not to mention society has much pretty silenced my voice, strangers have shunned me with their apathy, neglect and indifference anyway. The consolation with death is that I won't know I'm nothing, I'm a nobody. Its an enigma how the state of not being aware of anything is strangely tranquil.

Everyone should fear death for what it does to those that are left behind.

Just because you fear something doesn't mean everyone should. Ever asked yourself why we don't fear oblivion?

[Whateverist]

Compared to an eternity death is just around the corner, waiting in it's silence to take hold of you, to relieve you of all your dreams and thoughts, to put a silence to your voice, never to be heard from again. Everyone should fear death for what it does to those that are left behind.

"Death is just around the corner" sounds like the mindset of someone who isn't much investing in the life they have right now. Of course, in geologic time, our lives are mere specks. But if you live it fully, you can get a surprising amount done while enjoying some nearly timeless moments.

But eternal life? Consciousness may be poorly understood but there is a lot of agreement that brains give rise to it just as GI tracts give rise to digestion. It's pretty hard to imagine either process existing outside a body. Timelessness, heaven and hell are all mental states which only seem to last forever. Change is the only constant. Enjoy sentience while it lasts.

[houseofcantor]

Everyone should fear death for what it does to those that are left behind.

Choose life, or chose death; is the choice offered in scripture. Thing I like about Christianity; it is so obviously fake, evil, duplicitous.

The solution I have found to "fear of death" lies in dual-state identity. Keep your monkey off the simulator. It's that simple. Future is nothing but emergent simulation in mind, where mind itself is influenced by the duality of operating paradigms; what I call the man and the monkey. The man does the cognition, the writing on forums, the playing of the Mass Effect; the monkey - rather than "animal that must be suppressed (another idiotic Christian conceit)" - is what mediates the organics. Having self-knowledge is knowing that there's a form of on-board autopliot in mind, or John Cantor would have flown this aircraft into the ocean long ago.

It is a matter of visualization and useful philosophical perspective. Knowing that I have a brain evolved with the functionality of emergent simulation is knowing that I (mind of man) is the one qualified to operate the equipment; that when the simulators kick out unqualified garbage, the monkey's at the keyboard again.

See how nice, easy, and pleasingly atheistic that is? You put garbage into your simulation - like death, infinity, eternity - you get garbage out - like irrational fear. Put into an evolutionary perspective, fear is advantageous; a caution against reckless impulse, an awareness of dangerous environment, a drive to preserve the identity of self over time - see where things start to get complicated? We have an evolutionary imperative to simulate future, yet so little cultural understanding of the machinery involved that logical contradiction abounds.

The rational fear of death keeps the individual safe from needless experimentation - i.e. jumping into a woodchipper - the irrational fear of death is lack of self knowledge, and as Godchild illustrated, a thriving metaphysical enterprise.

The thing I know (enough not to do any more experiments) is that your monkey is a tool of key utility in two critical areas. Trauma, and death. The animal knows how to take a hit, lick the would, and march on; the animal knows how to curl up when the marching is done.

But despairing over oblivion is being a monkey, plain and simple, it is division by zero; the extrapolation of the temporal into the absurd brought about by not understanding the difference between the definition of a word and the wording of a concept.

As a certified psychopath, I am qualified to ponder the eternal; you are not. The Christian, least of all.

[downbeatplumb]

I am not afraid of death because it is the end, there is nothing to be afraid of.

Dying however is a different matter, that scares the willies out of me.

[Godscreated]

Compared to an eternity death is just around the corner, waiting in it's silence to take hold of you, to relieve you of all your dreams and thoughts, to put a silence to your voice, never to be heard from again. Everyone should fear death for what it does to those that are left behind.

"Death is just around the corner" sounds like the mindset of someone who isn't much investing in the life they have right now. Of course, in geologic time, our lives are mere specks. But if you live it fully, you can get a surprising amount done while enjoying some nearly timeless moments.

But eternal life? Consciousness may be poorly understood but there is a lot of agreement that brains give rise to it just as GI tracts give rise to digestion. It's pretty hard to imagine either process existing outside a body. Timelessness, heaven and hell are all mental states which only seem to last forever. Change is the only constant. Enjoy sentience while it lasts.

I love life and hope to live for many years yet, one never knows when death will over take them. The first part of my statement was to show the hopelessness of non belief in God. The second part was to show that, after we are gone death has an effect on the ones that loved us and that is the part of death we should fear. However as a christian I see a need for the non believer to have a fear of death. By the way my sentience is ever lasting, eternal, forever and ect. I will enjoy it especially on the other side.