Death

My grandfather died this Thursday. Everyone said it was a blessing because he never had to go to a nursing home and he had Alzheimer's disease, but they were crying through saying it. It was the first time I had a relative die, and it hit me hard. At the funeral, there was a lot of talk about heaven and religion and god, and it hit me kind of hard, as I haven't really been to mass much.

So, what are your opinions on death? Is it a good thing or bad thing? Do you believe in life after death? If you do, do you believe that you have to achieve greatness? When you die so you go to another place, or become a ghost?
Not questions that keep me up at night, but stuff that I wondered about on the ride home.

Life and death will always be bound together, where life exists, there will be death as well. My opinion about "death" is rather innovative, I prefer to consider it as a blessing instead of an actual curse. Death shouldn't be seen as bad, in my opinion, but rather as a new chapter in your life.

It's something to be overcome, first with establishing a legacy (living while dead, living on as a concept instead of a being), and then science.

My grandfather was the first relative who died for me as well (except for my other grandfather, who died when I was 1... so doesn't count). I cried so much...

As to what I think of death... I fear death. A lot. There's nothing I'm more afraid of than dying, actually. And it sucks, because I can't possibly escape it. I feel extremely bad when I think of it, I even get short panic attacks sometimes, so I try not to think of it.

Do I believe in an afterlife? I don't know. I have a hard time believing in things. I'd like to believe so, but I'm not one of those guys you can convince by reading from the bible. I said so in another thread, but I would really like to have a near death experience. Maybe that could shed some light upon it all. Maybe. I won't try killing myelf in order to get one though, that would just be plain moronic

Originally Posted by Misanthrope

It's something to be overcome, first with establishing a legacy (living while dead, living on as a concept instead of a being), and then science.

No,no don't you see? A world without death would be horrible.Overcrowding would be critical, crimes would skyrocket and lawlessness would spread. Within a few years the last of the natural ecosystems would be crushed to provide farmland and cities and the only animals left would be force-bred in farms. The last of the oil would be used up in a decade increasing global warming and mass famine would be everywhere.

I can see only three consequences of this: the human race would descend into anarchy and barbarity; we would destroy the planet; A dictator would seize power and turn Earth into a tightly-controlled, Orwellian nightmare.
All of these options spell doom for the human race.
Death is a short-term grief in exchange for long-term survival

^ Why would you think so? Because without death, we cannot punish people for commiting crimes? We could still seal them inside a tiny tiny cage and just dump then in some cave. Then when all the caves are full we place them all on a rocket and send them into outer space. The only thing that would happen would be that people would dare doing stuff that isn't illegal, but still dangerous, like jumping off buildings and such.

The Earth would get over populated though, that's a given. Unless you made it illegal to get more than one child. That'd at least slow down the increasing amount of people, giving the scientists time to figure out how to populate other planets. In the end, we'd have a giant human empire. And as the space is supposedly infinate, we wouldn't run out of space. Yeah, so it would be weird... but it certainly wouldn't doom us all.

Well I like to think of Death like a rest, that after you had gone through your life it's finally time for you to rest but it comes for some people sooner than others. Any way as tolkien said in his books, being mortal is the gift of men and by the way I do believe in heaven so that lends it more to my idea of rest.

I don't really fear death. I fear the impact it has on those close to someone that dies, not the actual experience itself. I like to belief that when we die we relive our most powerful memories. Our experiences shape who we are. I try to collect as many fond memories as I can.

My common sense however tells me that death is quite simply complete nothingness. In fact, not even nothingness, because we would cease to exist meaning nothingness would also not exist.

I have always treated death rather as a motivation than a distraction. Because there's no denying it, we're all gonna die ... so ... why really worry about that, when you could be worrying about other things. Or none at all.

Originally Posted by DekuQueen

I have always treated death rather as a motivation than a distraction. Because there's no denying it, we're all gonna die ... so ... why really worry about that, when you could be worrying about other things. Or none at all.

Damn, what am I gonna say now? QFT.

Well, the only thing I can say is that I don't fear death. I feel exactly the same way as DQ.

I try not to think about it.
Sorry for your loss, and in a sense you are lucky that he did not get Alzheimers.
Thats a horrible deisease to have, hopefully a cure will be found.

I feel that there is something after death, thats what I would like. Turning into nothingness isn't very cool.
"Resting" is something else I won't be so enthusiastic about. I don't like the idea of resting for all eternity after I die, I would like to do something eventually.
Sorry about your loss, I hope you get better soon.

I do not fear death, for I know that life on Earth is only the beginning of eternity.

But what I do fear is the process of dying. I try not to worry about it.

Originally Posted by Leonri

No,no don't you see? A world without death would be horrible.Overcrowding would be critical, crimes would skyrocket and lawlessness would spread. Within a few years the last of the natural ecosystems would be crushed to provide farmland and cities and the only animals left would be force-bred in farms. The last of the oil would be used up in a decade increasing global warming and mass famine would be everywhere.

I can see only three consequences of this: the human race would descend into anarchy and barbarity; we would destroy the planet; A dictator would seize power and turn Earth into a tightly-controlled, Orwellian nightmare.
All of these options spell doom for the human race.
Death is a short-term grief in exchange for long-term survival

I think a species that can eliminate death would have colonized other planets by then.

you cant really tell if there is life after death...but i believe in it...........

Originally Posted by UltimateOctorok

My grandfather died this Thursday. Everyone said it was a blessing because he never had to go to a nursing home and he had Alzheimer's disease, but they were crying through saying it. It was the first time I had a relative die, and it hit me hard. At the funeral, there was a lot of talk about heaven and religion and god, and it hit me kind of hard, as I haven't really been to mass much.

So, what are your opinions on death? Is it a good thing or bad thing? Do you believe in life after death? If you do, do you believe that you have to achieve greatness? When you die so you go to another place, or become a ghost?
Not questions that keep me up at night, but stuff that I wondered about on the ride home.

It is sad knowing you'll never see that person again, but it will fade in time. You'll move on, just like many people do.

As for an afterlife, I like the idea of being reincarnated into different lives throughout history. It just seems more appealing to me than spending a few decades here, then the rest of eternity in another place. I'd rather live a million lives than two lives as it were.

But I'm not even sure there is an afterlife. The only sure thing is to try to do something worthwhile in this life, if you don't feel that living itsself gives your life enough meaning. Revolutionize something like many before you.

Become a household name like Benjamin Franklin, Teddy Rosevelt, and Elvis Presly.