Death

Vastet's picture

Every year or so a topic comes around discussing death, and fear in regards to it. My response is always the same, though the wording may vary. In order to make it easier and faster to respond to such topics, I'm going to copy my last post on the subject here, so it can be easily retrieved. It will be multiple post due to a character limit on this system. And so without further ado...

After multiple occasions were I came within a hair of death, and a lot of introspection, I ceased worrying about it. There is only one difference between not being born and being dead. That difference is the mark you left on everyone you ever encountered directly or indirectly. Any time you taught someone something, every time you helped someone, even every time you screwed someone over had an impact on that person, which in turn had an impact on everyone they had an impact on. You will exist as long as humanity exists, because you made changes in people's lives, and those changes propagated throughout the species....

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.

Vastet's picture

The more impact you made,

The more impact you made, the more of you lives on after death.This is not to say my adrenaline doesn't pump when I forsee danger, nor does it mean I ignore death (my survival instinct is as strong as it gets), but it does mean that death doesn't haunt me. I believe my final breakthrough was after watching Final Destination, though I give some credit to the author R.A. Salvatore and his Dark Elf series. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie where the main character locks himself in a wooden shed and ties everything down to keep "Death" at bay. He isolates himself from the world, eating canned food with ovenmitts on, living in paranoia, and "Death" nearly gets him anyway. After the movie was over I considered that for a good week before coming to the conclusion that such isolation is not only pointless (even if you avoid it for years, eventually oxygen or age will take you down), it's also effectively suicide.

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.

Vastet's picture

Everything you are, you are

Everything you are, you are denying to everyone else, meaning you don't get to affect people by your existence, relegating your existence to irrelevancy. Worse, living in paranoia such as that deprives you of any joy in existence. So what then is the point of living?

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.

Brian37's picture

I don't see what the

I don't see what the scientific relevancy of a movie, which is nothing more than mental masturbation has to do with reality?

"What is the point in living"?

The quick and honest answer is that there is no point. The evolutionary answer is survival. But on a cosmic timescale level there is none.

So ultimately it boils down to YOU as an individual making a point to live for yourself and dealing with the time you do have.

Not sure where you are going with this.

All I can do is speak for myself. I make my own purpose for the limited and finite time I have. But life ultimately is a crap shoot, and out of the million of sperm I was in, a different sperm could have easily taken my place and I wouldn't exist.

Ok, now "fear of death". No brainer. Of course I fear death If  evolution didn't have a fight or flight mechanism it never would have taken off.

So again, what is the point of this post?

Death happens? Yea? There is no point to life or the universe? So?

I can still enjoy life with even the bad that happens, just like I can enjoy a movie or sporting event also knowing those things will end.

 

 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog

ex-minister's picture

Vastet wrote:The more impact

Vastet wrote:
The more impact you made, the more of you lives on after death.This is not to say my adrenaline doesn't pump when I forsee danger, nor does it mean I ignore death (my survival instinct is as strong as it gets), but it does mean that death doesn't haunt me. I believe my final breakthrough was after watching Final Destination, though I give some credit to the author R.A. Salvatore and his Dark Elf series. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie where the main character locks himself in a wooden shed and ties everything down to keep "Death" at bay. He isolates himself from the world, eating canned food with ovenmitts on, living in paranoia, and "Death" nearly gets him anyway. After the movie was over I considered that for a good week before coming to the conclusion that such isolation is not only pointless (even if you avoid it for years, eventually oxygen or age will take you down), it's also effectively suicide.

 

Reminds me of the great quote from Helen Keller.

Quote:

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Then there is this twilight zone - Nothing In the Dark

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K78iduBHLpQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=1YKOhsM6CNc

 

 

 

Religion Kills !!!

Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/

Vastet's picture

Brian, my point is that if

Brian, my point is that if you spend all your time worrying about death, you forget to live. If you forget to live, then you may as well BE dead.

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.

Brian37's picture

Vastet wrote:Brian, my point

Vastet wrote:
Brian, my point is that if you spend all your time worrying about death, you forget to live. If you forget to live, then you may as well BE dead.

The other extreme is that you don't think about death and you do stupid shit to get yourself killed needlessly. Like religion does in causing wars.

 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog

Brian37's picture

19 people 10 years ago

19 people 10 years ago thought that by their own death they would live forever. All they did was commit a stupid act of murder suicide.

There is nothing wrong with living and certainly dwelling on "what if" can hamper any life. But one person's idea of living is not the next. Adventure seekers think that is living. Homebodies think that is living. And the truth is life is what you make it, not what script others try to sell you. If humans would just seek to be themselves rather than buy scripts and sell scripts as if it will cure the world's problems, we'd all be better off.

 

 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog

Vastet's picture

I never suggested a fear of

I never suggested a fear of death was a bad thing. I'm not sure why I have to post 3 times when the point was perfectly clear the first time: obsessing about death is stupid and wasteful.

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.