What are your views on death?

[Avida]

Death to me is the end of your consiousness, nothing more. Once you die, as far as you are concerned nothing will ever happen, ever. And you wont even be able to notice that, because you'll be dead.

Argh, its a horrible thing to imagine, not because of fear of the inevitable or anything but because of that feeling where your heart drops and yet beats faster, and you feel cold, actualy kinda frightened despite what i said earlier. Is there a word for that? Forgive my youth.

Theres only been 2 times in my life so far where ive been able to comfortably think about death, and to be completely at ease with it, i miss those times - there was something deeply gratifying about saying 'One day I will die, and that will be ok', moreso than simply 'I would die for her' or him, or something simmilar.

Death is not something to be dealt, ever, unless nessacary for survival or food or if the hypothetical person truely wants it. Because death as a sentence is an infinite time period, which makes it infinitely disproportinate to any crime. Moreover, it gives no chance of redemption (unless certain specific religions turn out to be correct) and gambles on the chances of what that person could do, and any chances of afterlife.

Also, since some people above me are talking about it. My view on (true) immortality is that its bad, everyone should have the capability to end - if immortality was a decision i get the impression it would be one deeply regretted.

...

Anyway *moves along to a nicer thread*.

 

[this_was_a_mistake]

Death is the beginning and the end.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

For me, it is only a minor setback.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Every single step in life has something happening. Nature knows what its doing, I seriously doubt Nature just "gives up" after death. The only difference is that death is a one person wide door, you don't go through it with someone.

That probably made no sense.

 

[D_987]

I believe that the concept of living for eternity is an attractive one, but i do not believe it is something i would want to do alone.

I used to beleive that; but then look at how cruel the world is. Death should be welcomed, not pushed away because it is impossible to imagine. Living for eternity would be boring and upsetting, as depression will hit even the best of us at times during our lifetimes.

Death constantly keeps us moving, chasing that goal, because we know we do not have infinite time before our lives are over.

A great poet; Phillip Larkin wrote a couple of poems on Work, and consequently death. They detail how we work for the majority of our lifetimes. In "Toads" he sees this as a bad thing, yet accepts we work because we need something to occupy us. Yet in his later poem "Toads Revisited" (the toad is a metaphor for work, they are perceived as ugly and disgusting) it helps ease the passage into death. For in reality we are all just wasting time before the inevitable.

Spoiler: Toads

Toads

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?

Six days of the week it soils
With its sickening poison -
Just for paying a few bills!
That's out of proportion.

Lots of folk live on their wits:
Lecturers, lispers,
Losers, loblolly-men, louts-
They don't end as paupers;

Lots of folk live up lanes
With fires in a bucket,
Eat windfalls and tinned sardines-
They seem to like it.

Their nippers have got bare feet,
Their unspeakable wives
Are skinny as whippets - and yet
No one actually _starves_.

Ah, were I courageous enough
To shout, Stuff your pension!
But I know, all too well, that's the stuff
That dreams are made on:

For something sufficiently toad-like
Squats in me, too;
Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck,
And cold as snow,

And will never allow me to blarney
My way of getting
The fame and the girl and the money
All at one sitting.

I don't say, one bodies the other
One's spiritual truth;
But I do say it's hard to lose either,
When you have both.

-- Philip Larkin

Spoiler: Toads Revisited

Toads Revisited
Philip Larkin

Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,

Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses -
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn't suit me.

Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,

Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And characters in long coats
Deep in the litter-baskets -

All dodging the toad work
By being stupid or weak.
Think of being them!
Hearing the hours chime,

Watching the bread delivered,
The sun by clouds covered,
The children going home;
Think of being them,

Turning over their failures
By some bed of lobelias,
Nowhere to go but indoors,
Nor friends but empty chairs -

No, give me my in-tray,
My loaf-haired secretary,
My shall-I-keep-the-call-in-Sir:
What else can I answer,

When the lights come on at four
At the end of another year?
Give me your arm, old toad;
Help me down Cemetery Road.

Personally I would rather die quick and painless; because I would not like to know that these are my final moments of conscious existence.

 

[Aproxx]

There is only one exciting thing about death. The afterlife!

 

[GothmogII]

Death is death...personally, I don't get why people are sad about it, but respect that they are. I'd rather people were laughing and talking about all my life's achievements (such as they could be ) at my funeral, you know, having fun. Death doesn't have to be somber, morose, grim. I don't know, while I understand, that death 'before your time' or an un-natural death aren't really something to laugh and joke about (most of the time), but well...they're dead, does getting yourself upset really help them? (Knock yourself out if it helps you though.) What do they care anymore? Although, that's more of an atheist thought, so I could be wrong.

All I know is, I've been witness to plenty of beloved relatives in my family, and while I miss them, I've never mourned their loss. Though...maybe that sounds a little confusing...I mean, I'm not happy they're dead...just happy for them...er...that they're dead...humm...gotta think of a more tactful way to put this.

 

[iain62a]

OP, you are deserving of the title of Captain Obvious. Of course we're all going to die, what's your point?

 

[Crudler]

It's a once in a lifetime experience! (Usually)

I welcome death's sweet embrace.
Not so much as I would go out of my way to kill myself and I'm not at all unhappy, I've just always been curious.
There may be nothing, in which case that is fine as it wont affect me as I'll be nothing whatsoever.
There may be a traditional afterlife in which case all shall be merry, or not and in that case god is a huge git.
There may be what we each believe or want there to be, for instance I was convinced when I was younger that if you died prematurely you continued your life as if it were normal but with the ability to whatever you wanted really. When/if you died normally then you would be able to live again at any time with the same powers.

Kind of strange but I always liked the idea of the latter.

 

[Riyka]

id like to believe in reincarnation...it sounds pretty awesome.
for a start heaven and hell is just impractical i mean if you think about everyone/thing thats ever died...all going to one place...seriously? also its just creepy...it means my grandma can see me making out with people...*shudders*

anyway personally, its ineveitable, why bother fearing it? while i have no inclination to drop dead right now, i'm not afraid of it.
Even when people close to me have died i mean im sad but its not like i didn't see it coming...
People get so hung up on death, constantly finding ways to evade it or put it off, or the constant need for a reassurance that it isnt the end theres an after life. why? why do you need to think that when you die theres something else? it actually makes me kinda angry when people tell me my nans gone to a better place..i mean for a start whats wrong with this place?XD and secondly why assume i need that reassurance to deal with death?

as far as im concerned when you die, its game over.

 

[Baonec]

I've thought about it alot in the passed year and feel i'd welcome it whenever it comes I can't see anything that i'd actively try to remain for.

 

[mike1921]

Eternal life would be savage, because then people would actually choose when to die (and I imagine many people WILL want to die after living for so long) and the concept of suicide booths/kits/companies would be pretty disturbing.

That is not the most retarded thing I ever read here but it's going on the list. You think living would suck because we'd learn to give people a choice. No it's not disturbing and probably wouldn't be to you after long enough.

 

[Lord George]

actually the human body does not start to die from the moment you are born as Humans are not a closed system but rather an open system that performs entropy and constantly recycles energy. therefore what actually kills you is trauma to the organs or some from of disease or clot in the artery's or blood. This means that if technology manages to catch up in the next few decades Humans could live indefinitely through organ replacement and regeneration. Death can piss off as I plan to live forever

 

[savandicus]

meh, your atoms will be around for ever though so what does it matter!

Not true, given infinite time its a certainty that the atoms that make up your body will eventually find themselves converted into energy. Although thats assuming infinite time and the universe probably wont last for an infinite time.

 

[soren7550]

My view on death is that it'll happen when it will happen, there is no afterlife and that I'll die before I'm 20. I'm almost 17 now, so by my belief I better hurry up and do something with my life before I drop.

 

[orifice]

It's going to happen. I'm not happy about it but what can I do?
Hopefully it's not the end.

 

[wewontdie11]

I can honestly say I don't fear death. I'll bloody avoid it wherever possible but I'm firmly of the philosophy that when it's your time to go, you gotta go. To paraphrase The Who, I just hope I die before I get old. I just hope I go out in the most spectacular way possible, like having sex with Lucy Pinder, while skydiving, on fire, then explode.

actually the human body does not start to die from the moment you are born as Humans are not a closed system but rather an open system that performs entropy and constantly recycles energy. therefore what actually kills you is trauma to the organs or some from of disease or clot in the artery's or blood. This means that if technology manages to catch up in the next few decades Humans could live indefinitely through organ replacement and regeneration. Death can piss off as I plan to live forever

There's research going on at the minute into oxygen free radical particles produced at a cellular level, as they are thought to be the reason why we age and our tissues degenerate. Those free radicals are a product of respiration and build up over time and cause damage. So actually by living, we could well be dying, just really slowly.

 

[Mindex]

what your trying to say is that your happy that they no longer feel pain and that they are in a better place for them now.

 

[Jharry5]

It's a promise... so you have to enjoy life while you still can. Otherwise, what's the point?

 

[Duck Sandwich]

My fear of death keeps me motivated to extend my life through improving my physical fitness, in order to do as much as I can and live life to the fullest before I die. On the other hand, living long enough to become old and decrepit (which will hopefully be well-delayed by the aforementioned fitness improvement) is not a pleasant thought. Perhaps in time, I'll come to accept death, but for the time being, I'd rather focus on living.