Why do we look at death as a bad thing?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I don't particularly fear death, I'd just rather not be there when it happens to me.

Boru

[fr0d0]

Yes I'd want to be off in someone having a great orgasm.

[Psychonaut]

Well, evolutionarily speaking, species that fear death are favored.

I second this, there's also a growing body of data that suggests that a lot of mental pathology is caused by trying to rid ourselves of this instinctual death anxiety in maladaptive ways.

The theory also posits that humans tend to resort to violent behaviour as a means of defending their death transcending mental constructs (IE:- culture, religion) and gives a decent description of why we fear death. Check out terror management theory if you're interested (there's also a great documentary with Sheldon Solomon called flight from death).

[Wyrd of Gawd]

-Why do we view at death as something bad?
-When people die why are everybody so sad,how do we know that this life is really something good and death is something bad?
-What is making us thinking that death is an bad thing,why don't we just accept it as a part of life?
-Why are people so caught up in thinking what comes after death? Why does it seem that we want to live for ever? Is there any neurological explanation for this.

Excuse my English.

Any replay is welcome this topic has been bugging me for a while so I would really appreciate if someone would share their view on this theme.

People don't fear death as much as they fear the process of dying. In most instances it takes a long time to die and it's usually messy. If death was instantaneous people wouldn't fear it as much.

Consider the person speeding down the highway. ANy number of things could go wrong, resulting in his death. But he doesn't worry about dying because it would most likely be instantaneous.

A person suffering from a chronic illness has had a long time to think about dying. He's worried about his loved ones and how they will manage without him. If he's alone he's worried about who will find his body and bury him. He's worried about what will happen to his stuff and who will miss him, if anyone.

Sometimes a person can simply live too long for his own good. It's better to have a quick death instead of a long-drawn out one where you suffer in so many ways until your last breath.

[ThePinsir]

I'd wager it's a product of evolution. Organisms are adapted to reproduce and survive. In a way, avoiding death is the driving factor in evolution.

[ShaMan]

-Why do we view at death as something bad?.

I view death as saving the best experience for last. I embrace death

[Tonus]

-Why do we view at death as something bad?

Do we? For the most part, we seem to show concern for death in a very limited set of circumstances.

- we may feel a sense of sadness at the passing of someone we never personally knew, but admired. Like a movie star or musician.

- we may feel a sense of sorrow when we hear about a particularly "senseless" death, such as a depressed man who kills his family and then himself. Or a person who dies from a lack of basic care. Depending on the circumstances, we may also feel outrage on behalf of the dead or sympathy for their loved ones.

- we may feel a very deep emotional or mental pain at the death of someone very close to us, be it a family member, a significant other, a very close friend, or a beloved pet.

And we probably fear dying because it means that's the end, and we probably had some stuff that we would liked to have gotten done if we'd had just one more hour, or day, or week, etc. Survival is probably very deeply ingrained in our psyche because the organism that wants most badly to survive is more likely to do so and to pass along its genes.

But in general we don't think about death anywhere near as much as we would if we truly thought it was something bad. Around 150,000 people and perhaps more than 160 million animals die every day on this planet. How many of those do each of us mourn? How many of those force us to contemplate the good/bad of death?

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

In philosophical terms, death is undesirable because it removes our agency, in other words, our ability to take action and make decisions.

That said, I see death as a welcome relief after a lifetime of struggle, so I don't see it as inherently bad. As Sweeney Todd put it, "The lives of the wicked should be made brief//for the rest of us death will be a relief."

[Nicko]

I personally find the concept of death utterly terrifying. I don't believe in rebirth or the existence of an after life. To me death is final.

It's this finality that scares me. In an immeasurably short fraction of time, your entire essence fizzles out of existence. All your experiences, all your actions, everything you've ever said, everyone you've ever met and every interaction you've ever had......gone in an instant. That is a tough thing to deal with for me.

[tor]

To not exist, would seem intrinsically at odds with the way in which I have lived most of my life...

Hahaha. Touche!