Why is death so scary?
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Why are we, as human beings, so afraid of death? Personally, I don't think it is because of the actual process of dying. Some people go through extremely painful deaths and they may say that the pain is the scariest part but what happens when the pain ends? Where do they go? What happens to all of us after life on earth is over... do we become worm food or is there something else better or is it worse?
I believe that the fear of death is really a fear of the unknown. I know people who have extremely strong faith and those people have a weaker fear of death than those who don't have faith. Those people feel more confident that they know what will happen when they die and it isn't a mystery. Wouldn't it be comforting to die and have such strong faith that you KNOW that you are going to a heaven or a hell. Maybe you KNOW that you are going to be reincarnated. Maybe you know that you have lived a life before the one you are living now. That is comforting.
I may say I'm not afraid of death but when I was in my near-death experience, it wasn't like that. I don't have a strong faith, I am learning to have a sense of spirituality and still don't have a religion. I have several conjectures about what could happen after I die but each of them are each as unproven as the next. I'm not sure about any of them because I don't have any sort of faith to back me up. I am afraid that I will end up going to a hell or have to live life as a human again. That uncertainty makes me afraid of dying.
So when you really think about it, it's how strong your beliefs are about what happens after life that are being challenged when you think about the fear of death. But as Albus Dumbledore says in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, "To the well-organized mind, death is nothing but the next great journey in life."
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Comments
they say coward dies a thousand times before thier death. i think the death itself is not really important but where we are going is more important and the legacy we leave behind is also important. that's why is always good to check yourself every time , because we all have onelife to live and after then is judgement.but before then jesus told to occupy till he comes and while occupying let's live a Godly life
chephy says:
5 days ago
To even suggest that pain is the scariest thing about death is such an absurd proposition that I must really question the thought processes (or lack thereof) in the head of the person suggesting that. No, that's not the scariest part, duh! There are lots of ways to guarantee oneself a painless death, after all. It's not necessarily the uncertainty either: in fact, uncertainty would be a welcome relief! After all, something good could follow death, right?
However, all the facts are pointing to one simple thing: when we die, we completely disappear. We stop existing in any way, shape or form. There is nothing to follow but complete and utter oblivion. THAT is what is so scary.
People with a strong faith manage to fool themselves into thinking something else awaits them. In fact, their faith is so strong precisely because they are so afraid of oblivion, and so they work very hard to convince themselves that conscience does not end after death, despite 100% of evidence pointing to the contrary.
I am not saying that I KNOW that complete nothingness follows death. This is the sort of thing that cannot be proven if it's true (though it may be possible to disprove it if it's not). But only a fool and a coward would claim to "know" what follows. Well... people are extremely good at fooling themselves especially weak and stupid people.