Do you fear death?

[Sylar Hao]

Not as much as fearing death itself, I fear "not existing".

This. Death or dying "don't worry" me, well, they do worry me, but it's just a concern. But the fact of not existing? That scares the hell out of me. When I think about it I get frozen for a few seconds...

[Airlick]

I guess I'm like most people in this regard, I fear painful death, but not death itself. Doesn't matter if we move on to another plane of existence or something or just cease to exist, in the first scenario it will just be a new beginning, if it's the latter, then I won't care anymore, will I? So there's nothing to fear, unless you believe in Hell and know you're a bad person, harr harr.

I just want to live my life as best as I can while it lasts.

[Themius]

This is like the 20th topic with the exact same title I've seen on this forum. There should be like some mega thread on this by now.

[spinner981]

But there isn't evidence that points to the existence of anything spiritual. So when there isn't proof, it's easier to disbelieve something.

Yes, but that doesn't alter the facts; that we cannot know whether the spiritual exists or not.

There is no evidence of the spiritual, beside a few books, and people wanting to make money by preying on people's fear of death.

If you want someone to trust you on this topic, you need to show them evidence of an afterlife. Since you have none, there is no trust.

Once again, since we reject the testimonies of those have claimed to have gone to the after life and then come back, there is no way of 'evidencing' it with physical observations. What do you think we would do? Build a space ship that can travel through dimensions somehow and go to heaven/hell or something?

I am not definitely claiming one way or the other, I am saying that we cannot know one way or the other. The person I was responding to was the one claiming that there is definitely no life after death, while I was claiming that that is something we cannot know for certain.

[Themius]

But there isn't evidence that points to the existence of anything spiritual. So when there isn't proof, it's easier to disbelieve something.

When there isn't proof of either position I say why enter in a belief of either position?

[Zoldor]

No, but I dread it, mainly because I enjoy living. Then again death could be a journey to something even better. No fear, just like living so I'd rather avoid death as long as possible at this point in my life.

[spinner981]

When there isn't proof of either position I say why enter in a belief of either position?

Well, such a thing would be paradoxical. You have to believe one, or else you would believe the other. Belief and definitive knowledge though are two different things. I believe in an after life, but I don't claim to have empirical physical evidence of said claim, because once again, the spiritual cannot be proven or evidenced by the physical.

[Alefnir]

Valar Morghulis. Of course, as a human and a living thing, I want to avoid death. But I do not live in fear of it and there are many worse fates in my mind. The worst thing about death as I see it is how those who love you will feel when you pass.

[Annoying]

This. Death or dying "don't worry" me, well, they do worry me, but it's just a concern. But the fact of not existing? That scares the hell out of me. When I think about it I get frozen for a few seconds...

I didn't exist for billions of years before I was born, and it didn't bother me one bit.

[Themius]

Well, such a thing would be paradoxical. You have to believe one, or else you would believe the other. Belief and definitive knowledge though are two different things. I believe in an after life, but I don't claim to have empirical physical evidence of said claim, because once again, the spiritual cannot be proven or evidenced by the physical.

That's not paradoxical... I believe in the possibility of one; however, I don't believe in one because that's something I can't know.

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I didn't exist for billions of years before I was born, and it didn't bother me one bit.

It's more accurate to say. "I was just created"

Not exiting in some past moment isn't important, what is important is the start of your existence. I don't quite understand that quote of not being bothered by not existing at some point in the past. At some point in the past you didn't exist to worrying about it. There is absolutely no comfort in that quote.

[spinner981]

Problem is, how do you know they are not seeing things their dying brain is producing? People have various hallucinations when they are deprived of oxygen. People that are spun in G-Force testers, for instance, report seeing paranormal stuff... when their brain is deprived of fresh blood....

In rare cases people have claimed to have had an out of body experience (claiming to have been observing their own revival from the other side of the room), and accurately described things that happened in the room while they were clinically dead. People have come 'back to life' after periods of time where their brains would have taken considerable brain damage, without suffering any noticeable brain damage. Sure, you can explain it away to 'medical miracles' and convenient hallucinations, but ultimately that is the rejection that I was talking about earlier.

That's not paradoxical... I believe in the possibility of one; however, I don't believe in one because that's something I can't know.

It's paradoxical to believe in neither, is what I was saying.

[Zula95]

Reading this made me think of this video right away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Kdn4FEr-0
OT: I voted no, although the method does cause some worry

[Deleted]

Bit like what has been said already.
I don't fear death itself, it's natural and around us every day, but I'd be scared of "how" I'd die as in long-lasting pain and misery or suddenly being hit by a truck=instant death. I would obviously prefer the quick and sort of painless way.

The question if you fear death also makes me wonder why people hate it so much that they get older. Are they scared of dying? I don't mind getting older at all, I also don't think that "half your life" is over when you're 30. Quite the opposite. You've only "just started cause you basically can't do anything by yourself or responsibly before you turn like 18ish, cause before that you're a child and have your parents to take care of everything from diaper change to paying rent on top of most people not even remembering most of the first 3-6 years of their lives. So that's 12 years of actual living with your own decisions. You also don't die when you're 60 unless you're unlucky with diseases or else. My parents are well over 60, my grandmother soon to be 80, and they're quite fit. /shrug

Death can hit you at any time and any age, better not worry about it too much until it's time to do so.

[petej0]

Well, such a thing would be paradoxical. You have to believe one, or else you would believe the other. Belief and definitive knowledge though are two different things. I believe in an after life, but I don't claim to have empirical physical evidence of said claim, because once again, the spiritual cannot be proven or evidenced by the physical.

That is why non-belief is the default position. You have to experience something to believe. When you are born you dont believe in Santa Claus, it isnt until your parent tell you of Santa Claus that you believe in him. Your parents telling him he exists is enough evidence for you to believe. As you grow up, you require more evidence and when more evidence cant be supplied you fall back to the default position which is non-belief.

If you are making a claim, the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. If you claim Tom robbed you, the burden of proof is on you to provide evidence that Tom robbed you.

[madmanx]

We can only observe the physical. We cannot observe the spiritual, such as our souls. But that isn't proof that the spiritual does not exist. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean that it cannot possibly exist. I am not claiming that the spiritual definitely exists, I am claiming that we cannot know for a fact one way or the other. We can believe 100% in the physical world, but that doesn't imply that a spiritual world necessarily does not exist.

You are the one making the definitive claim here. I am merely saying that we cannot know one way or the other for 100% truth.

Also, demanding physical evidence for the spiritual is silly. We should expect physical evidence for the physical and spiritual evidence for the spiritual.

We can only observe cows. We cannot observe mythical beasts, such as Unicorns. But that isn't proof that Unicorns do not exist.

[Ghostpanther]

When there isn't proof of either position I say why enter in a belief of either position?

Because to some there is proof. You happen to reject it, which is why you do not accept it. Or we could say...some refuse to accept a experience of another because to them it is not proof.

[Ghostpanther]

We can only observe cows. We cannot observe mythical beasts, such as Unicorns. But that isn't proof that Unicorns do not exist.

This is true when we look at something from a physical point of view.

[spinner981]

That is why non-belief is the default position. You have to experience something to believe. When you are born you dont believe in Santa Claus, it isnt until your parent tell you of Santa Claus that you believe in him. Your parents telling him he exists is enough evidence for you to believe. As you grow up, you require more evidence and when more evidence cant be supplied you fall back to the default position which is non-belief.

If you are making a claim, the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. If claim Tom robbed you, the burden of proof is on you to provide evidence that Tom robbed you.

Non-belief is not the default position. A child does not require their parents telling them that santa claus is real. Rather, they merely require them to mention santa claus. A child believes most anything by default, and in fact we are taught to be skeptical and to not believe everything we hear. I remember when I was very young (like 5 or something), I was trying to take my older cousin's socks, and he told me that it was illegal to take off other people's socks, and I believed him.

The default position is belief. We are later taught to default to skepticism.

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It could be rejection, or it could be grasping at straws(by believers). You could want your belief to be true, so you grasp at any anecdotal evidence to support it.

Insidently, people in g-force testers have also described having OBE's

Out-of-Body Experiences Linked with Poor Sense of Own Body
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...me-over-there/


Not really, you compartmentalize. You can hold two opposing ideas and believe in both, it takes practice, but it's doable.

Once again, evidence for the spiritual would be spiritual in nature, thus being anecdotal because that is how we describe claims that aren't based in physical evidence. Also, I would say that being in a g-force tester would be different than being clinically dead.

[Zogarth]

Life is meaningless, it is in death we are truly tested.

[Conspicuous Cultist]

When there isn't proof of either position I say why enter in a belief of either position?

Basically, yeah.