Does the thought of death scare you?

Lonsome_Drifter said:

I find myself sitting and thinking about when I die. We all have got to go one day, and the thought scares me greatly. I have my own beliefs (lets not get into a religious debate here please), but the thought still frightens me out of my mind. So, does anyone else think of how it will be when we die, and are you afraid of it?

I stress again, please no religious posts, because they all lead to arguments, and hurt feelings. Thank you!

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It's scary because it's an event with an unknown outcome. Having faith in a religion gives you the reinforcement that maybe death isn't the unknown that we perceive it to be. I was raised Catholic as well, but the fact is that regardless of your beliefs, death is a true unknown. We just choose to believe something about it.

Take comfort in the fact that we all have to do it and it's just a phase of our lives. After you've absorbed that, then turn it into a life challenge to outlive everyone else before you die.

Well i am only 14 years old so i have a long time to live,i also don't plan on drinking a lot of alcohol or plan on smoking,My grandma didnt smoke or drink and she died at 91 years old, 7 years ago.

I'm not to worried about the afterlife, heaven, limbo etc

because i have so far been a good person, and hope to keep it that way. I even sometimes pray to God if somebody i know is having a rough time or is sick or injured.

I don't want to stop living at the moment and so I fear death in that sense.

I have responsibilities so that's the reason.....perhaps it's selfish but I fear the death of my love ones more than my own death. To me part of you dies with them.

Death itself does not scare me...hereafter or oblivion..it's all ok. Heaven will be great....oblivion then it won't matter...hell....well I don't think many of us deserve that and personally think that it's BS.


But don't worry, fear of dying is a natural instinct...self preservation that all beings should have, in normal circumstances.

If however you are preoccupied with a fear of death, perhaps you need some professional help.

Epicurus had an interesting theory on why one should not fear death:

"Get used to believing that death is nothing to us. For all good and bad consists in sense experience, and death is the privation of sense experience. Hence a correct knowledge of the fact that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life a matter for contentment, not by adding a limitless time [to life] but by removing the longing for immortality. For there is nothing fearful in life for one who has grasped that there is nothing fearful in the absence of life. Thus, he is a fool who says that he fears death not because it will be painful when present but because it is painful when it is still to come. For that which while present causes no distress causes unnecessary pain when merely anticipated. So death, the most frightening of bad things, is nothing to us; <b>since when we exist death is not yet present, and when death is present, we do not exist</b>. Therefore it is relevant neither to the living nor the dead, since it does not affect the former, and the latter do not exist. But [most people] flee death as the greatest of bad things and sometimes choose it as a relief from the bad things of life. But the wise man neither rejects life nor fears death. For living does not offend him, nor does he believe not living to be something bad. And just as he does not unconditionally choose the largest amount of food but the most pleasant food, so he savours not the longest time but the most pleasant. He who advises the young man to live well and the old man to die well is simpleminded, not just because of the pleasing aspects of life, but because the same kind of practice produces a good life and a good death."

I'm not afraid of being dead, just the process of getting there is what makes me nervous. Personally, I believe in nothing, so it's not like I expect to be anywhere. But that's for another discussion.

What I really dread is being at the age where major health problems can come out of nowhere. Such as a sudden heart-attack at 48 or so. I'd feel like a ticking time bomb once I reach an age where people can normally start having severe health problems. But then again, that can be anytime.

I think about death quite alot. Too often, I'm sure. But I'm almost 18 (In Oct.), and I never say "Oh, I've got a long time to live", because frankly, I can't count on that. What if my appendix bursts in the middle of the night? What if my house blows up? What if I get in a car accident or a train derails and beheads me? I never assume I'm going to live a long life. That may sound crazy, but I like to be rational and keep things in the realm of possibility. Even if it means croaking sometime soon.

But, it's inevitable. I agree with Pale, it is 'Dying' that is most scary for some. For me it is.

We all go from to

Dr.Jonesy said:

I'm not afraid of being dead, just the process of getting there is what makes me nervous. Personally, I believe in nothing, so it's not like I expect to be anywhere. But that's for another discussion.

What I really dread is being at the age where major health problems can come out of nowhere. Such as a sudden heart-attack at 48 or so. I'd feel like a ticking time bomb once I reach an age where people can normally start having severe health problems. But then again, that can be anytime.

I think about death quite alot. Too often, I'm sure. But I'm almost 18 (In Oct.), and I never say "Oh, I've got a long time to live", because frankly, I can't count on that. What if my appendix bursts in the middle of the night? What if my house blows up? What if I get in a car accident or a train derails and beheads me? I never assume I'm going to live a long life. That may sound crazy, but I like to be rational and keep things in the realm of possibility. Even if it means croaking sometime soon.

But, it's inevitable. I agree with Pale, it is 'Dying' that is most scary for some. For me it is.

We all go from to

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I'm with you Dr.Jonesy. No fear of heaven of hell. Nothing to look forward to but a dreamless sleep, which I always imagined as going under anaesthetic, which I can only recall as being the blackest of sleep, well at that moment when the drug kicked in.

But the manner of going is uncertain for all of us:











and so on...!

Im not afraid of dying its how I get there that scares me I sure don't want to be slowly crushed to death feet first.
But lets say I die in an explosion that spreads me across a room in in seconds flat I would be cool with that at any age.

To die would be a great adventure...

Nurhachi1991 said:

To die would be a great adventure...

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...it might be the longest adventure of all...

...or it might be the shortest adventure of all...

DocWhiskey said:

But the thing that really scares me is what happens after you die. Not the whole "where will I go?" angle but the fact that it's "forever". Wherever we go we're going to be there forever. FOREVER. What the hell do we do there?

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I must agree with my fellow doctor.

But at the same time, is it forever? I have no idea... no one does... and he who claims to, well... lets just say nothing is certain. but I feel about death like how I feel about an anticipated film I'm just about to see... I go in with the lowest of expectations. When I come out I may very well be surprised.

As far as I know, or don't know, when the music's over turn out the lights... when your dead, you're done. nothing. But I've been wrong before.

...and yes it does scare me.

When I think of all the ways I could die the one that most intrigues me and I find most appalling to me is the scenario were the Doctor tells you that you have X amount of time to live. I would love to have this happen to me some day I would see it as winning the lottery. I would not wasted it by spending time with loved ones hell I see my friends and family almost daily.
If I knew how long I had I would spend it committing horrible crimes and hanest acts to people and property.

Webley said:

When I think of all the ways I could die the one that most intrigues me and I find most appalling to me is the scenario were the Doctor tells you that you have X amount of time to live. I would love to have this happen to me some day I would see it as winning the lottery. I would not wasted it by spending time with loved ones hell I see my friends and family almost daily.
If I knew how long I had I would spend it committing horrible crimes and hanest acts to people and property.

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Hey, Webley, get out of my head. That was my dream!

In fact my real dream was inspired by Charlton Heston in Omega Man (long before I realized it was a novel, and Will Smith made I am Legend). I would imagine what life would be like if I was the last person left in the world, exploring all the secrets of the world, all the places that were previously off-limits. Own anything, do anything, go anywhere. No rules, no restrictions, no one to frown upon your activities!

The only other time you could have such freedom is when you're actually dead, as then I believe you have no mind to think, and therefore no concept of freedom, and therefore you actually are free: though the dreamless sleep forever is hard to imagine. The moment of death itself must be the terrifying part - I can imagine the desperate will to hang on, and not be forced to make the final journey.

Wow, this thread is heavy without humour. I need to laugh in the face of death:

Nurhachi1991 said:

To die would be a great adventure...

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(("Hook" in case no one caught it -- nice one Nurhachi))

As a strong Christian, I know where I'm going when I die, so that thought doesn't scare me. But two years ago I watched my dad die for 12 days in a coma after a drunk driver hit him. The first two days after the accident he was awake and in terrible agony. So, as someone else mentioned, the way you die is uncertain, and to me a bit unsettling.

I work in Christian television and have heard/seen a lot of stories from people who had near death experiences and had visions of both heaven and hell, and seen things that couldn't be explained away with 'it's just a bunch of random neurons firing.' So when you die it's an either/or, not a nothingness.

I'll also say, similar to worrying about the actual mode of death, that as I get older and start seeing more gray when I don't shave, that I have a bit of a fear of aging. I felt kind of bad for the original Old Indy. Worn out, tired, and weak, a little senile. A shadow of the adventurer he once was. A 7-year-old Short Round could have kicked Old Indy's butt. That's not a happy thought, but I'm cool with death. Just don't want it to come too soon.

What if this all just a dream? What if it is not real? There is good cause for wondering this. Death makes this life unreal. When we die, it will be as if we never existed, except in the fading memories of those left behind who are to suffer the same fate anyway. Death is frightening because it is an unknown. If we could get to know what death is, maybe it won't be frightening. Assuming there is nothing afterwards, or heaven or hell or whatever is guesswork or just the attempt at solace. How can we guess at something we can't remember or haven't been to before? And don't adopt other peoples' experiences. We all journey into death alone. Krishnamurti said that sorrow,fear and death are inextricably linked. To resolve one is to resolve all. An interesting thought.