Grad Student Humanist

I'm afraid of death, but your reasoning here is really off the wall, a sort of Pascal's Wager regarding the afterlife.

I don't agree that people can just choose to believe something, no matter how comfortable it allows them to feel. I can't just decide tomorrow that I'm going to believe in God and heaven. What good does it do to pretend there's an afterlife when reason and common sense are telling me that it's an impossibility? I've had to accept that there is no escape from death and that death means annihilation. Even accept is a strong word; mostly I just don't think about it.

lpetrich

Whoever has as their last words "See you in Heaven"?

And where are those who try to deliberately send themselves to Heaven?

And whoever turns a funeral into a celebration of "Hooray! Mr./Ms. X is now in Heaven!" It's as if one is not entirely convinced of that.

And whoever tries to join their dead relatives and friends in Heaven?

So I'm not sure I completely buy the argument that the religion business is desirable as the Opium of the People.

Furthermore, belief in an afterlife is not the exclusive property of any one religion, and it can exist entirely independent of most "recognized" religions, as in the belief that one will become a ghost and haunt a house or something like that.

Marduk

The nagging fear that reincarnation might really occur, fills me with dread more so than the idea of simply dying and fading away forever.

NonHomogenized

I don't want to die yet, but neither am I afraid to die.
When I do die, I hope it's quick, and, if possible, meaningful.
Y'know, sacrificing myself to save the world would be nice

Tony

Stephen T-B
“I don’t know.
Is being afraid of death the same as not wanting to die?”

I don’t think that it’s the same.

Being afraid of death is being afraid of stopping being alive.
Can I live forever? No. Otherwise it will be no evolution, no progress.

Not wanting to die… I don’t want to die. But, again, I realize that I have no choice. No matter what I think or do – I will die.

I don’t want to die, but what can I do? Lie to myself? I have no choice if I want to be honest. I’d rather be honest. It’s so liberating.

Appius

Taking one's own life is not a Christian ideal. It shows a lack of faith that God will be with one always; therefore, some will say that those take their own life end up in hell with Judas.

At funerals one is reminded that the deceased is with God, and the friends, family, and the whole church rejoice in the fact that God has taken the deceased to heaven where he dwells, but at the same time they will miss the deceased, and they will look forward to seeing the deceased in heaven, when their own end comes.

QUOTE]Originally posted by lpetrich
And whoever tries to join their dead relatives and friends in Heaven?[/QUOTE]
I think this relates to the one about sucide, althought I shall add that one does look forward to the time when they will be taken to heaven, but at the same time one will remain until God calls him, for God yet has a reason for him to live.

Lobstrosity

I think you underestimate human gullibility. People tend to believe what they want to believe. This is why con artists are able to make a living. They make unreasonable, suspicious promises that people want to be true, so those people suspend disbelief and get taken. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say that they could never accept that there was no afterlife, even if it could be proven true. Basically, it's not hard to believe in an afterlife if you really want to and are willing to set aside your critical thinking skills (and it certainly seems this is something the majority of the population feels perfectly comfortable doing--true skeptics are a minority and are often viewed in a negative light by the majority). The first thing you've got on your side is all of the people who currently believe in an afterlife. It's not hard to commit the fallacy of belief if it supports what you want it to support. On top of that there are plenty of people out there who will explain to you all about how the idea of an afterlife is supported by evidence and logic. If you want to believe it, you simply supress your critical thinking skills and go with the flow. In no time you can find yourself actually believing, so long as you make sure to neglect that tiny questioning voice of reason that might pop up now and again.

And to address the OP, I do fear death. My fear comes from the implications it has on my ability to carry out my current dreams and desires. There are all sorts of things I want to do with my life. It makes me happy to think of these things. Death, however, means that I might never get to do them, and that uncertainty is unpleasant. The thing I most fear about my death is the affect it will have on those I love. It kills me (well, not literally) to think of what my wife would go through were I to die tomorrow in a car crash. I can't stand that I could be responsible for such pain in the ones I love. Also, a portion of my death could be painful, which would sort of suck.

Inconnu

Has anybody considered the possible embarrassment in the mode of their eventual death? Being found dead in a hotel room with the 'ol fella flopped out, or being run over by a car and you didnt have your clean underpants on! It looks like fear of death can somethimes involve extending your conciousness after your death, such as regret, worry for loved ones etc that you would feel after you die. Odd.

Lobstrosity

My fears don't have anything to do with extending my consciousness after death, they have to do with understanding how other surviving consciousnesses (i.e. my loved ones) are likely to react at that time. It pains me now to know my loved ones will be pained in the future because of my death, you know? Hence I fear the event that will bring that sadness to them. It's not because I will be conscious then of their sadness, it's because I'm conscious now of their potential sadness and I never want the ones I love to be sad, especially because of me. Put another way, let's say you find out that your mother has terminal cancer. You would be sad at hearing this news even though she will not die until some point in the future. Your sorrow comes from the projection of future expectations onto your current considerations. The same can be done with regards to your own death--the date just happens to be a complete unknown.

Stephen T-B

Lobstrosity wrote: “Basically, it's not hard to believe in an afterlife if you really want to and are willing to set aside your critical thinking skills (and it certainly seems this is something the majority of the population feels perfectly comfortable doing -- true skeptics are a minority and are often viewed in a negative light by the majority).”

I think this argues for the case that skepticism is a mental condition. It prevents those who have it from overriding their critical faculties and believing the unbelievable, however attractive that might be.
Great Student Humanist is a case in point when he wrote: “I can't just decide tomorrow that I'm going to believe in God and heaven.”
Neither can I.
Skepticism does, however, have gradations, with severe skeptics having to apply rigorous logic and rational judgment to every little thing they are told or read.
I’m a mild skeptic. I can’t believe in gods or the after life, but I’m easily taken in by plausible rogues, and I have sometimes believed that a fault developed by my car will somehow repair itself, and I tend, generally, to think that things aren’t as dire as I’m told.
I need these little delusions in order to get by.
The sever skeptic entertains no delusions at all, but may not be the happier for it.
I may not be the happier for not being able to believe in the after all. But like Great Student Humanist, there’s nothing I can do about it.