"Why do we fear death?" -Kana

[Shadow Walker]

o-o

[JonnWood]

I fear death not. Harm yes, death no. Garr says he was surprised to live another month. I know that if I die, I'm going to heaven. Garr knows he's going to hell, but what he doesn't know is that he will not rule.

Feel free to correct me.

[Garr_The_Sane]

JonnWood, in which case, as Nietzsche once said, "In heaven all the interesting people are missing."

I certainly don't believe in hell in the sense that you do,....... but if I you must put the world in such contexts,. then I'll take hell any day,... give me the raidant abyss of torment and angush,...... rather THAT than being pampered and secured and looked afer,. for all time,.......... few REALLY realise that greatest torment your "soul" can expirance is to realise itself for what it is,.. and to have the freedom to do whatever you like,..... it's truely soul distorying to have to make your own goal rather than have one placed before you,........ i can thnk of no greater pain,... and I will embrace it with every ounce of my being,.......

to, once again, quote Nietzsche, and at the risk of turning this into a religious argument, please note this is my oppinion as well as olde Fred's:
"What is more harmful than any vice? Practical sympathy and pity for all the failures and all the weak: Christianity."

but then, I don't believe in an "afterlife",..........

and WASN'T surprised to live another month,. I WILL be surprised if I live to see April,.......

[spoon]

I'm convinced that the only reason humankind isn't extinct is that it has created a cascade of false realities to look to rather than the truth. It's like a blue-pill-or-red-pill option. The blue pill allows you to live in a psuedo-world in which everything is nice and reasonably tolerable. Take the red one and life a life apart - scorned by the blue-pillers, constantly depressed due to the acceptance of reality. strict marxists have taken the red pill - a reasonable viewpoint that casts aside many of the disguises conventional western idealism has placed on existance. they are insulted and cast out of society. mainstream-politics and religion are blue pills - a way to hide how things are. The universe could care less if the world were paved into a hyperspatial bypass or not. To contrast, God will protect His creation from such a thing.

as for not turning this into a religious debate, it's rather difficult to debate death without it, seeing as it has as many adherents as it does.

[Killer-Rabbit]

I was going to say fear of the unknown, but daemon princess got here before me.

But I still think it is. No one knows for sure what happens to someone when they die. No one knows what to expect. Thats what they are scared of.

[The Forum Hillbilly]

Death to me, is the only certain thing we have, and sometimes it scares people to know that there is actually something they know that will happen, something they don't have control over something they can't change no matter what they ever do, and people like to have a certain control over there life.

[daemon princess]

Spoon, I do believe you're onto something, though it seems to me (and of course, that's just me) that it's a one-sided, over-simplified viewpoint, useful only as a starting point. How do you even know what reality is in the first place?

I understand it was a very short post and you've probably got more on your mind, so it's not really fair for me to be critical.

You might like this quote: "There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from the pain of thinking." ~Alfred Korzybski

[vixendrop]

I have two reasons for being afraid of dying...

1. I am truly afraid of the unknown... it affects me in many different situations, this being one of them... I know what I've been taught to believe, in several different religions, but the fact remains that no one *knows*... no one CAN know honestly... we can only assume what will be waiting... and I don't want to find out...

2. I hate to miss out on anything and when you die, well... you miss out on a lot after that... maybe what's on the other side will be better, but I what if it's not? What if it's eternal boredom? ~gah~

I'd like to think though that I'm afraid right now also because I can be... I know I'm not dying anytime soon, so I have the luxury of being afraid... but if it was coming for me soon, well... that's different... I would hope I'd be able to find peace within myself about it... but I truthfully don't think I could... I have a feeling I'll go out of this world kicking and screaming... then again, I'm so dang stubborn I also can't envision myself giving into the hand of death...

[Garr_The_Sane]

Spoon/daemon princess: "Man would sooner have the Void for his purpose than be void of Purpose."

[Fixer]

<SNIP>

[daemon princess]

Garr, that's an excellent quote! I actually have a theory (I know, I'm full of silly theories ) that people are dependent on ambition. We prefer the means rather than the end. We love it when things suck because then we can fight to make it better.

When people are lazy, I think it's quite the opposite of what it seems. They don't want to go to school/do dishes/work because they don't get the feeling that there's a goal in place. So they go to entertainment. Have you noticed all our entertainment is based on reaching goals?

Video games have a purpose, whether it's saving the princess, getting your sim a great job, getting the Fire 3 spell or even just completing the game. In movies, you just want that guy to get the girl, evil villain to be defeated etc. SO, my theory is that people get lazy because they ARE ambitious and are simply looking for a place to quench their thirst for seeking out goals.

[Garr_The_Sane]

sounds similar to the discordian theories of lie that i've been formulating through my observations of the world,... it's too big to write it all out here, and few would think much of it anyway,........ but if you want to talk about it sometime ICQ me