The purpose of death

[GoddessWhispers]

The purpose of death

Death is indispensable to nature and evolution. Without death there would be no emergence of new individuals with genes better adapted to the changing environment. Without death there would be no room for new species to emerge.

Without death there would be no mating, no birth, no parenting, no family warmth. Death is the price we pay for the enjoyment of love between man and woman, love between parent and child. Even if medical technology allowed us to abolish death tomorrow, we could have no more children, or the world would become impossibly overpopulated.

The fear of death

The fear of death is to some extent instinctive: nature has given us the drive to survive. While we live we are not separated off from nature and the universe: our molecules are continually renewed every single day. All that really persists is information - information on how to maintain the structure that we think of as us. But most of us strive to keep this set of information intact for as long as possible.

We also have consciousness. Again consciousness is not an integrated thing: our minds are as fluid as our bodies, a constant succession of changing thoughts and desires and feelings. Yet it too is never separated from the world of matter: when we are awake, we are constantly interacting with the external world, perceiving and acting. Even when we are asleep our minds are humming with material activity, with millions of messages flying between our neurones. There is a thread, a continuing screen on which these mental events are projected. That screen is our consciousness. And we are just as afraid of losing this as of losing our bodily existence.

Ending the fear of death

Death is not something we should fear. When we are alive, we are not dead. When we are dead, we are aware of nothing. So it's only because of the brief transition between life and death that death poses a problem. We should not live our whole lives in the shadow of such a brief moment. To live in fear of death is to die a living death.

As the Roman poet-philosopher Lucretius wrote:

Death is nothing to us and no concern of ours . . . When we shall be no more, when the union of body and spirit that engenders us has been disrupted - to us, who shall then be nothing, nothing by any hazard will happen any more at all. Nothing will have power to stir our senses, not though earth be fused with sea and sea with sky . . . Rest assured that we have nothing to fear in death. One who no longer is cannot suffer, or differ in any way from one who has never been born. [De rerum natura, iii:828-840; 864-867]

Acceptance of belonging.

The fear of death is rooted in the belief that we are separate from nature, that spirit is superior to matter, that matter is something alien and threatening. This is what produces the panic at vanishing into darkness, at being sucked down into cloying, clinging earth. Pantheism can free us from the fear of death. Matter is not alien: it is the living substance of our very selves. We are as magnificently material as rocks or trees. Our bodies are part of nature and part of matter. Our minds are constantly interacting with matter and with nature. We are totally embedded in this world, inseparably and permanently part of it.

At our death the temporary separation of our genetic structure and our consciousness is ended, and we are more fully united with nature and the cosmos, and the matter of our bodies is recycled into new life. During the process of dying we should relax into this realization, float and drift in the sea of matter. Such an attitude is far more calming than to worry whether we are headed for heaven or eternal torment - or whether we'll be reborn as a cockroach or a king.

A realistic prosect of survival.

If we still hanker after some kind of personal survival after death, we must find a realistic approach, compatible with the persuasive evidence that our minds are not separate from our bodies and do not survive after death.

Yet we can hope for a kind of personal survival - survival through the creations and memories we leave behind ourselves in the real world.

The return to nature of our bodies, and the survival of our works and memories in other people's minds, add up to a kind of survival which would satisfy most people. They would almost certainly stimulate greater kindness and consideration, better efforts to improve the world and to preserve nature, than the selfish hope of heaven.

[thaphantum]

The purpose of death

Death is indispensable to nature and evolution. Without death there would be no emergence of new individuals with genes better adapted to the changing environment. Without death there would be no room for new species to emerge.

Without death there would be no mating, no birth, no parenting, no family warmth. Death is the price we pay for the enjoyment of love between man and woman, love between parent and child. Even if medical technology allowed us to abolish death tomorrow, we could have no more children, or the world would become impossibly overpopulated.

what does death have to do with the ability to have sex?

The fear of death

The fear of death is to some extent instinctive: nature has given us the drive to survive. While we live we are not separated off from nature and the universe: our molecules are continually renewed every single day. All that really persists is information - information on how to maintain the structure that we think of as us. But most of us strive to keep this set of information intact for as long as possible.

We also have consciousness. Again consciousness is not an integrated thing: our minds are as fluid as our bodies, a constant succession of changing thoughts and desires and feelings. Yet it too is never separated from the world of matter: when we are awake, we are constantly interacting with the external world, perceiving and acting. Even when we are asleep our minds are humming with material activity, with millions of messages flying between our neurones. There is a thread, a continuing screen on which these mental events are projected. That screen is our consciousness. And we are just as afraid of losing this as of losing our bodily existence.

is that why atheists always make the argument about God allowing death in the world?

Ending the fear of death

Death is not something we should fear. When we are alive, we are not dead. When we are dead, we are aware of nothing. So it's only because of the brief transition between life and death that death poses a problem. We should not live our whole lives in the shadow of such a brief moment. To live in fear of death is to die a living death.

As the Roman poet-philosopher Lucretius wrote:

Death is nothing to us and no concern of ours . . . When we shall be no more, when the union of body and spirit that engenders us has been disrupted - to us, who shall then be nothing, nothing by any hazard will happen any more at all. Nothing will have power to stir our senses, not though earth be fused with sea and sea with sky . . . Rest assured that we have nothing to fear in death. One who no longer is cannot suffer, or differ in any way from one who has never been born. [De rerum natura, iii:828-840; 864-867]

and someone knows this because they died before... right?

Acceptance of belonging.

The fear of death is rooted in the belief that we are separate from nature, that spirit is superior to matter, that matter is something alien and threatening. This is what produces the panic at vanishing into darkness, at being sucked down into cloying, clinging earth. Pantheism can free us from the fear of death. Matter is not alien: it is the living substance of our very selves. We are as magnificently material as rocks or trees. Our bodies are part of nature and part of matter. Our minds are constantly interacting with matter and with nature. We are totally embedded in this world, inseparably and permanently part of it.

At our death the temporary separation of our genetic structure and our consciousness is ended, and we are more fully united with nature and the cosmos, and the matter of our bodies is recycled into new life. During the process of dying we should relax into this realization, float and drift in the sea of matter. Such an attitude is far more calming than to worry whether we are headed for heaven or eternal torment - or whether we'll be reborn as a cockroach or a king.

A realistic prosect of survival.

If we still hanker after some kind of personal survival after death, we must find a realistic approach, compatible with the persuasive evidence that our minds are not separate from our bodies and do not survive after death.

Yet we can hope for a kind of personal survival - survival through the creations and memories we leave behind ourselves in the real world.

The return to nature of our bodies, and the survival of our works and memories in other people's minds, add up to a kind of survival which would satisfy most people. They would almost certainly stimulate greater kindness and consideration, better efforts to improve the world and to preserve nature, than the selfish hope of heaven.

how is hoping for something better for everyone... heaven... selfish?

what is more selfish is the attempt to deny the existence of an afterlife... all so you can escape the responsibility of answering for what you did in this life...

or maybe the atheist is just plain scared that God exists...

[Jodie.Lynne]

And they say EX-christians are nasty.............

[GoddessWhispers]

[brave_new_world]

Just cant resist putting in some cool death quotes. I love the subject of death. I'd love to have a conversation of death and learn more about life!@! I think these quotes give a decent wide variety of views on the subject and hope you enjoy these well excecuted pieces of sentence. Let us start off with this quite gothic statement by that dear musical genuis Wolfgang Mozart

As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling, and I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. I never lie down at night without reflecting that —- young as I am — I may not live to see another day. Yet no one of all my acquaintances could say that in company I am morose or disgruntled.

---Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I love that one! Even If I dont agree with it completely it. I love the way the sentences are arranged so beautifully.

I do not fear death, for I was fortunate to have been born in the first place. This life is a gift, and was never really mine at all.

----Serena Butler, last message to Xavier Harkonnen

Carl Gustov Jung a famous swiss psychiatrist had a near death experience and said this of it when revived: What happens at death is so unspeakably glorious that our imagination and our feelings do not suffice to form even an approximation of it.

Birth and death are no two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. --Mahatma Gandhi

There is no death. Only a change of worlds. ---Chief Seattle

The fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretense of knowing the unknown . . . and no one knows whether death which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. . . .

--Socrates

It is our fear of deaththat terrifies us. You can think about a thing in many ways. Scrutinize your idea of death. Is it true? Is it helpful? Don't dread death or suffering. Dread your fear of death and suffering. ---Epictetus

The wise seek no escape from neither life nor death, for life does not trouble them and death does not seem an evil. Just as with food, they dont choose the largest portion, but the most delicious. They do not desire the longest period of time, but pluck the most pleasant fruit. --Epicurus

Perhaps death is life and in the other world life is thought of as death. Who knows? ---Euripides

It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind. --Jonathan Swift

And here is one I really like:

What does it mean,

"Endless affliction is bound to the body"?

Man's true self is eternal.

yet he thinks, "I am this body, I will soon die"

This false sense of self

is the cause of all his sorrow

When a person does not identify himself with the body

tell me, what troubles could touch him?

Part of verse 13 of the Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu (Allah bless him)

Isnt that just simple but awesome?

Edited March 31, 2007 by brave_new_world

[brave_new_world]

A realistic prosect of survival.

If we still hanker after some kind of personal survival after death, we must find a realistic approach, compatible with the persuasive evidence that our minds are not separate from our bodies and do not survive after death.

Yet we can hope for a kind of personal survival - survival through the creations and memories we leave behind ourselves in the real world.

Shame they cant prove that the body creates consciousness.

[red spectre]

The purpose of death

Acceptance of belonging.

The fear of death is rooted in the belief that we are separate from nature, that spirit is superior to matter, that matter is something alien and threatening. This is what produces the panic at vanishing into darkness, at being sucked down into cloying, clinging earth. Pantheism can free us from the fear of death. Matter is not alien: it is the living substance of our very selves. We are as magnificently material as rocks or trees. Our bodies are part of nature and part of matter. Our minds are constantly interacting with matter and with nature. We are totally embedded in this world, inseparably and permanently part of it.

At our death the temporary separation of our genetic structure and our consciousness is ended, and we are more fully united with nature and the cosmos, and the matter of our bodies is recycled into new life. During the process of dying we should relax into this realization, float and drift in the sea of matter. Such an attitude is far more calming than to worry whether we are headed for heaven or eternal torment - or whether we'll be reborn as a cockroach or a king.

A realistic prosect of survival.

If we still hanker after some kind of personal survival after death, we must find a realistic approach, compatible with the persuasive evidence that our minds are not separate from our bodies and do not survive after death.

Yet we can hope for a kind of personal survival - survival through the creations and memories we leave behind ourselves in the real world.

A former girlfriend of mine died when she was young.

She was gone for a few minutes before being revived. She knew that before she came back to her physical body, she was the universe.

She felt the stars around her, darkness and light. She told me it was hard to describe, like being everything and that the only reason she's aware of

this now is because she came back.

Likely my description belongs in the metaphysical section but it does support separation of matter and consciousness.

[Purplos]

Interesting article there - and much I agree with. I've always considered birth and death to be the same - simple side steps into and out of different 'places.'

Instead of an 'undifferentiated wisp of nothingness' (thank you Vonnegut), I see us more as an undifferentiated wisp of everything.

[GoddessWhispers]

I would agree in that I think, if the sciences say all is created of energy which can not be destroyed, only transformed, that death would be a return to everything .