Do you fear death?

[Borachio]

Yes. I agree. It's not for the immature mindset. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it.

I find it useful personally. It lends a certain perspective to a lot of what I do; though not in a morbid way; it's actually quite liberating.

 

[Kyriakos]

^[insert futurama meme still] 'Not sure if honestly detached or just covert elitist'

 

[Borachio]

Just getting old, is more likely, I think. Am I still eight years old? No.

I certainly can't admit of any pretension to elitism. I'm not quite sure what you mean.

 

[Kyriakos]

Words can easily twist and turn, is all

At any rate we aren't all the same, so each one should find (or near) his own 'ideal' view of this issue, along with many other ones of importance.

 

[Masada]

No because I have no desire to live forever. Immortality has zero appeal to me and I just don't understand people who do want to live forever.

You might need to think this through a little more VRWC:

And Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

 

[Cheetah]

I don't fear death.

I fear not having lived a good life by the time I die.


Other than that, insert the obligatory Morgan (SMAC) quote.

 

[squadbroken]

Nope.

 

[Glububble]

I'm mostly scared of not having enough time to do what I want. I want to know everything, especially what will happen to humans next, and of course death is going to be quite an impediment to that.

Aside from the curiosity problem, old age, suffering and the pain of loved ones is much more terrifying than death itself. In fact I don't think you can experience death at all, since technically there ceases to be something or someone that can experience it once it happens. In a way, death doesn't exist.

When things go bad, I sometimes wish I were dead, because then the suffering would stop. It's always temporary though. After a while I go back to my usual positive mood.

To be honest, living forever is infinitely worse than death. Many people can't really comprehend infinity and don't realize what living forever would entail. In my nightmares, I sometimes picture reincarnation is real. Having to face an endless stream of lives with no opportunity to escape the cycle.

 

[bhsup]

You might need to think this through a little more VRWC:

And Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I was speaking of this mortal fleshy body, Masada.

 

[Masada]

Even so.

 

[bhsup]

Even so... what? I really don't know what you're getting at. We do not yet exist in the paradise on earth that Jesus will bring with his return. I cannot base my answer on that existence, but only on this one.

And anyway, even if (hypothetically speaking of course since it isn't true) God didn't exist and death meant utter nothingness, I still wouldn't want to live forever. it isn't the anticipation of immortal life with God after death that makes me not want to live forever here on Earth.

 

[downtown]

Sure I am, and I believe strongly in an afterlife. I have a family to support, and people who depend on me. Even if I believe that I'll see them all again, taking a 50 year (or whatever) break is still stressful.

 

[nerdfighter13]

I'm not so much afraid of death as of losing my consciousness, which is why even though I don't believe in an afterlife, I really hope there is one.

 

[Mouthwash]

Even given the most advanced techniques imaginable, the universe itself will/may go onto a heat death, and us with it, provided we haven't gone before (and it's unimaginable that we won't have gone long, long before).

The odds of us, say, escaping into an alternate universe during the interceding billions of years before the universe becomes uninhabitable might make it worth a try. And while immortality may be "endless" you will take an infinite amount of time to reach it. So you'll just keep going.

And apparently the only way we can survive is by becoming something other than human.

 

[Masada]

Even so... what?

Well, you claimed not to get the attraction of immortality; but you do, albeit with some caveats.

 

[classical_hero]

Davy Jones can take me any time, since I am not afraid of him.

Link to video.

My serious answer is still no. I know things are better for me on the other side, but I only want to go when I am very old, not right now.

 

[Mouthwash]

I would, in fact, like to become eternal. Not merely existing indefinitely, but existing outside of time (like Thomas Aquinas's eternalism).

 

[Phrossack]

^Immediately thought of Davey Jones.

If I thought about it, death might terrify me. It's permanent and the end of all the experiences that make up my life, this unique experience of living. Anyone who says otherwise can die and then tell me what the "afterlife" is like. But I don't think about it for precisely that reason, just as I avoid thinking about the future. Both are nasty things that are coming for sure. Especially the future. Horrible thing, that will be.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, interesting phrase about Jesus (in the Apocalypse) :

"I am the firstborn of (to) the dead". (iirc 'Ειμί ο πρωτότοκος των νεκρών').

I did not remember that phrase. Quite imposing in my view. It could be argued to potentially have meant "i am the first one who ever died" (which, in turn, could liken Jesus to the first being in existence, in a way).

The phrase is followed by "and will be the last to return to them", so the last to die too, i guess, probably in the end of days. The two phrases can have other meanings, sure, but those two are notable in my view as well.

(as always, approaching this from a plot/pattern side of things, not a religious one).

 

[El_Machinae]

I don't specifically fear death. In fact, I've implicitly proven to myself that I don't. I don't believe that death involves any type of suffering, even if dying might. I can easily imagine a life where I'd rather be dead, and I can easily imagine scenarios where I'll risk death.

That said, I think that death is a horrific tragedy. My grandparents, whom I loved very much, are gone forever. They didn't choose to die, they had their vitality robbed from them and their bodies degraded.

That robbery, coupled with the final (permanent) theft, drives me to believe that we have a moral onus to proactively fight death. Whether it's starvation, bullets, malaria, or age-induced, we should battle death. In the modern age, the greatest cause of debilitation and death is aging-induced degeneration, which is why I think we should work to cure aging.

At the personal level, I think that there are two (non-conflicting) options. Lifestyle slows age-related degeneration, and then hope for a 'cure'. OR, speed the rate at which the cure is discovered.