Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: Pseudoscience-is-malarkey on 01/03/2016 03:25:28
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It is rational to fear other people's deaths; people you are close to, because you will experience that person's death. You might see them in their open casket or perhaps take part in that person's end of life care, funeral and burial arrangements, ext. You will have to deal with the fact that you will never see, hear, smell or touch them again. I feel that fearing my own death is as rational as fearing the years before I was conceived in 1981 (I was born on Halloween day 1981). It is as rational as fearing a supernova that takes place in some distant galaxy.
Before my conception I was, for all intents and purposes, dead. As an atheist I argue that we will not experience our own death, just our survivors will have that honor.
Anyone see or at lest thought about death as I do?
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If people were not taught to fear their own death, social parasites such as priests, politicians and philosophers would be redundant and we'd have to kill them to make life pleasanter for everyone else. Which would be OK unless you loved your idiot son who, having no skills or graces, became a priest, politician or philosopher.
People sensibly fear the process of dying, because it is painful and degrading. It used to be the brief result of starvation, infection, or trauma. We have conquered pretty much all of these, even violent trauma - soldiers now survive with all sorts of bits missing as a result of political stupidity, and their disabilities are paraded for public entertainment as if that somehow justified a pointless war. So now we die from an extended period of pain, disability and mental confusion, and we rightly live in fear of that. But priests, politicians and philosophers have taken control of the most important choice that civilisation and modern medicine can give us, and won't allow us to die when and how we choose, unless we can afford the flight to Switzerland and have the mental competence to fill in a whole lot of paperwork.
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I think there are five entangled issues here:
1) The fear of dying.
2) The fear of being dead.
3) The fear of causing pain to those you love.
4) The fear of leaving unfinished business behind.
5) The fear of missing out on joys of life before dying.
While I agree with you that being dead is likely no more painful than being preconceived, dying itself might be quite painful. The last three issues will be different for people with different situations and dispositions. There is also a natural will to survive.
Ultimately we will all die. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
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Chris, I think there is also, if one believes in the afterlife, the fear of being punished for the "bad" things they did, such as murder or not worshiping the right god.
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Which is a very good reason for ridding the world of parasites who make unsubstantiated statements about the supernatural. Especially the ones who tell you that it is good and holy to murder those who choose a different god.
It's baffling to us aliens that humans can create such beautiful buildings and music in order to promote and celebrate intellectual garbage, whilst most of their hospitals (where they actually do something to stave off death) are ugly, smelly, and underfunded. And they pass laws requiring themselves to mercifully kill suffering members of other species, but insist on starving, dehydrating and beating their own relatives to a slow death.
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Before my conception I was, for all intents and purposes, dead. As an atheist I argue that we will not experience our own death, just our survivors will have that honor.
Anyone see or at lest thought about death as I do?
That thought has also crossed my mind more than once. So yes, I've wondered about that time before my birth and found it reasonable to consider that state as also similar to death. But the one exception would of course be, that after living, we now anticipate with some angst the end and how it may come.
Each of us may have different issues with this thing "death", and how we will manage it's reality. For me, one of my greatest fears is being surrounded by all my loved ones and subjecting them to the uncomfortable duty to watch me die. For this reason, I wish to die alone.
Desiring to die alone is, I suspect, a minority position. And there are times when I do feel a bit weird for feeling this way. Although I've never really asked others how they feel about such a circumstance and I certainly am not brave enough to ask for a poll regarding the subject. I already feel a bit too odd about my personal stance on the issue so forget exposing myself to any additional scrutiny concerning the subject.
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I agree. I intend to die from hypothermia or hypoxia, at a time and place of my choosing. I don't see any point in inviting friends and family to witness my demise, which will be clean and unspectacular, and they already know what to expect.
Between now and then, I'd like to set up a luxury death camp where people of like mind can die in comfort and with dignity. Part of the political concern about assisted suicide is the possibility that a person may be under family pressure to do away with themselves, or may be "assisted" by a follower of the delightful Dr Shipman. So the entry qualification for my facility will be that you have to will all (maybe at least half?) of your earthly estate to the clinic. That way we can be assured that there is no third party pressure (I won't even advertise - you have to ask to use the facility) as nobody you know will profit from your death, and we will be able to provide the service free of charge to those with no money. Indeed, since the termination methods on offer are very cheap, the clinic will also run as a charity hospital and hospice once the money starts to come in.