The Fear Of Death - Religion - Nairaland
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| The Fear Of Death by donnffd(m): 10:46am On Jun 14, 2016 |
How you feel about Death is probably shaped by whether you believe in an after life or not. The fear of death has plague mankind ever since we discovered its an inevitable end and thus has brought about philosophies associated with it. Ancient Egyptians believed that when you die, you heart would be weighed with a feather, the heavier your heart is, the more likely you would be sent to the underworld. Ancient Greeks believed that all mortals go to the underworld(which was the domain of Hades). Judeo-Christian and Islamic worldview believes that at death, you would be judge on your deeds on earth which would determine whether you go to Heaven which is a place of eternal bliss or Hell which is a place of eternal torment. Eastern Philosophies on the other hand believes that life is a cycle and death is just a point that connects the beginning of a circle to the end. Death is a topic many people dread and the only people who know what death is or feels like is the Dead (or do they?) 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by donnffd(m): 10:51am On Jun 14, 2016 |
Many philosophers has had a run on this subject and one of them is probably the world’s foremost; Socrates. Socrates didn’t think we could know if there’s an afterlife or not, but he thought there were really only two possibilities: a. Death is a Dreamless sleep b. Death is a passage to another life In both possibilities, there was nothing to fear about. Epicurus who lived about 100years after Socrates did not believe in the afterlife and thought option A was most likely but he too didn’t believe death was something to fear. This was his argument; -Death is the cesation of sensation -Good and evil only make sense in terms of sensation -So, Death is neither good nor evil So what he was trying to say is that if something is bad only because it feels bad, then death cant be bad because you cant feel it. Its just non-existence and the fear of non-existence is not only stupid but it gets in the way of enjoying life. 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by donnffd(m): 11:16am On Jun 14, 2016 |
davien, ValentineMary, Redlyn, HardMirror, hahn et al |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by HardMirror(m): 11:41am On Jun 14, 2016 |
donnffd:Fear of death is not a human thing, it is a living things problem. Even an ant will run away from death. But oddly all living things embrace death when they have something to protect (except cowards of cos) an ant will stand to defend their queen even to the point of death. Life is really just a big circle. We live to die. Reason why we should not take things too seriously. At the end the earth will perish, life will start all over again. Maybe the most intelligent life forms that would evolve out of the new earth will look more like present day cockroaches than present day man. Who knows? But one thing is sure, this present life -earth is on a path to destruction. One day in some billions of years to come, our sun will die out and that would be the end of this life as we know it. It's all a circle. Johnydon22 what you say 1 Like 1 Share |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by ValentineMary(m): 12:41pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
Death plagues the mind and makes one to to grasp another life. Humans would do anything to live forever but the sad truth is that we would not. But we should appreciate the life we have because many people would not be born. People more worthy to live, more intelligent, more innovative would never be born and that makes us lucky because we were born. So let us appreciate the short life we have because we ain't got all day wondering if the story of an afterlife is true or not. 2 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by donnffd(m): 12:58pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
Modern philosophers say that some people fear death because they would miss out on all the things that would happen, e.g Humans colonizing mars or the galaxy, True A.I computers and all that stuffs, e.t.c Its true but if you give it a second thought, what about all the things you missed before you were born? It didn’t seem to bother you that much… You have been dead for 13.8 billion years before you were born, and it did not seem to bother you in anyway, why think it would bother you again after your last breath?. 4 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by hahn(m): 1:57pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
Interesting topic. Personally, I am more concerned about this life. The concept of heaven and hell and simply products of wishful thinking and psychological control. I would rather concentrate on making the most out of THIS life which is promised and certain than of one that has too many unrealistic promises. 1 Like 1 Share |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by Nobody: 2:50pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
Man has succeeded in many things... He has conquered the planet and populated every land. He has crossed the oceans and visited continents unknowns. He has gone to the moon and stepped on truly foreign soil He has even build reflecting devices and stared at the glories of the universe. All Unknowns has been conquered : Unknown lands, powers, forces, people, places and things have been confirmed or disregarded. Indeed, he has confirmed a lot of Unknowns But he has not conquered Death. Death remains an unknown thing; a place like no other where one goes and never comes back (unless you believe the occasional NDE's)... What makes it even more complicated is that there are many differing ideas about it, so many claim to hold the ultimate truth... The Unknown terrifies us, it's natural, an habit ingrained by all animals, neccesary for survival and continue of our specie... Death is unknown; hence the fear of it. I think the fear of death will always be there in some minds; at least until we acheive Immortality. 2 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by ValentineMary(m): 3:20pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
SirWere:From ur point of view can.we achieve immortality  and how? |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by johnydon22(m): 3:27pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
HardMirror: I'd say exactly same thing i said on frank317's thread, there is nothing to fear in death, there is nothing to fear in inexistence. We have been dead for countless number of years back, we are alive now which is like a blind in a cosmic event, we'll be dead again after this little blink of life… So there is nothing to fear about these chain reaction of uncaring cosmic play. It's both ego and greed that compels men to clamor for more life when they have not yet finished living the one they have.. ..Humanity is so vulnerable that we leave that which is in front of us to chase after that which we do not have or know but a figment of our imaginations, thoughts and wishes. the above quote of mine holds true for our perception of death. Haven't you noticed how the word "Death" gives rise to different philosophies of hopeful realities to many. -On one hand some speculate we do not really die but transcends and then gets reborn and live again and so it goes in a circle. -Another suggests we do not get reborn but some thinking formless needless part of us continues somewhere else. -Plato suggests the body is a prison for the soul. Where as all these philosophies are profound and hopeful, i also call it greed, selfishness and a product of an unmatched ego wielded only by the human mind. Humans have that egoistic tendency of deluding themselves to be the most important part of the universe.. That is why in this deluding ego they see themselves as deserving to live again but not every other animal or living thing in this earth that also live as they live and feel as they do. -Just how important are we in this universe? More important than the stars? Without the stars we won't be here but without us they were, are and will be. More important than the plants ? without them we won't be here but without us they were, are and will be. So how exactly are we more important, why do we prize ourselves the most important part of the cosmos when we are so deplorable and expandable that the cosmos won't even notice our disappearance. So many stories have littered the course of human philosophy on the eventuality of death. So many wishful hopeful fantasies has been conceived to give hope and comfort to the human mind when faced with the inevitability of death. -We shall see again in paradise -we shall be reborn again -we shall make merry in Valhalla amongst thousands of such tales.. I do not know how enticing these stories are but i know the greed of a human mind makes them comforting as nobody would like to imagine the absoluteness of the end of our being. That to me comes from a short memory cus just a little journey backwards whene we were not here, imagining inexistence won't be far fetched. We have been dead for an infinite time backwards, now we are here and we will soon be dead how then can we not imagine our the state we were before coming to this?. I really understand the reasons why all these stories crop up in the human mind, why all these philosophies and emotional clutch to a comforting tale defines a huge part of our belief It is because of the vulnerability of our being. Being that almost certainly we are probably the only species amongst all in this planet that know at a very young age that we would die one day. This knowledge of our inevitable end is somewhat like a burden to us . I doubt that other species Chimpanzee, dogs , elephants even though alive as we are are fretting over an afterlife or performing rituals to earn a place in paradise or somewhere else outside the cosmos. No they just live in the moment. With all these stories filling the gap left by fear, vulnerability of our mind, we yet have no evidence to support these fantasies. I do not claim to have knowledge of what happens in death but if anybody, person or book claims to know, they are both lying and fraudulent. Because they do not know. We are so concerned by what we want to be, by what we wish for that we forget and pay little mind to what we have which is NOW So isn't it better and more noble we forget all these stories and focus on what we have and where we are which is Now and Here Here and Now are the most important, certain aspect of it all, make them count and don't waste them chasing after a vague shadow of an uncertain wishful fantasy. 3 Likes 6 Shares |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by Nobody: 3:56pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
ValentineMary:We are products of our minds. Our bodies are merely the containers of which our mind, the "soul" if you will, exists. If we can somehow transfer our essiential selves, memories, perceptions, likes, dislikes and all others into another "container", why, we have acheived immortality!! That is, of course mechanical immortality. Biochemically though; if we can finally finish learning the DNA sequence, why we can do a sort of reverse aging, turn Nature's way of recylcing against itself. The possibilites for immortality are endless; we just have to imagine....... 2 Likes |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by johnydon22(m): 4:28pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
SirWere: So what is the source of this Mind? Is the mind indepedent of the mere bodies? define mind |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by Nobody: 4:38pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
johnydon22:I'm not a philosopher abeg......  Really; I'm currently typing with phone and I can't type much. |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by johnydon22(m): 4:40pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
SirWere: You don't really need to type too much, you only need to simply define what you think mind is. and then tender how you think "Mind' comes about |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by Nobody: 5:41pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
johnydon22: The dictionary definition for Mind is "the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought".....and that's it. The Brain on the other word is "the control center of the CNS of an animal, located in the skull and responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion and action. The Brain is a definite thing, an organ with mass and fixed space. The Brain has been misunderstood over time (Aristotle has been said to think the Brain only acts as a Blood cooler) and it's only recently that it was considered as the main organ.... The cornerstone organ becoming the main deal, if you wish. The Mind, on the other hand, is a vague thing, immaterial yet affecting the world as we know it; the mind has no known weight, hell, there is not even an accepted definition of it yet.... The Mind exists because of the Brain, yet that very analogy seems false.... Why?? Because we have AI bots, PS2 controllers, Microcontrollers, chess players and others that are said to be "intelligent"... How can something be intelligent without a mind? What is intelligence?? We claim consciousness is restricted to humans alone......yet how do we know?? How can we say that Dogs aren't conscious? Apparently they see things, things we don't see?? How do you know what happens in anybody's head except our own? How do we even know what happens in our head?? The Mind suffers many diseases, biases, psychological damage yet the brain does not. Were we to get Hitler's brain and Mother Teresa's brain on the same table, one will not know the difference..... The Mind is vague, a whispery shadow in our brains. For if we open the brain, we see nothing but mush and maddening twisting neural pathways.... And yet.... From this pile of mush, arises the mind.... I'm sorry, I really don't know how to explain it yet... Perhaps LoJ can help me out here. 1 Like |
| Re: The Fear Of Death by CAPSLOCKED: 5:43pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
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| Re: The Fear Of Death by johnydon22(m): 6:27pm On Jun 14, 2016 |
SirWere: Now going from above the mind is the faculty of thought and consciousness and going from your definition of what the brain is it controls perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion and action. and these works of the brain in totality sums up to both thought and consciousness, going from this you are explicitly identifying the brain as the "Source of the mind" and even though the brain is an organ and so part of the body. The body now is not mere after all, going from this the body ceases to be just a "mere container" for the mind but the source. -Now as you have attributed things as perception, cognition and all to the brain, that is entirely not true. The brain is part of the process and not the only source of the result. If there are no pain receptors, you cannot feel pain even when you have a brain, if there are no taste buds you cannot taste even with a fully functional brain, no eyes no eye sight. so you see the brain is only a co-ordinator of the process and not the source, independently it cannot do anything just like every other part cannot function without others. So consciousness is the totality of the whole neurological composition of an organism not limited to the brain to the entirety of the organsim, every bit and part of him part of the process.
The mind is strange to us, immaterial just like light is immaterial yet produced by material. We do not fully yet understand how the neurological cosmos works but it is not a distinct value from it's sources. Neurological study have understood and seen how 'memories' are made in the human brain [one can also assert memory as part of the mind] by tracking mRNA in brain cells... if memory is also part of the mind, doesn't this imply we are seeing pictures of the mind here by tracking mRNA? is the picture of a television independent of the millions of pixels that makes it up? so too is the 'mind' independent of these tiny 'pixels' that projects it? We are yet to fully understand everything about us and the part of us most troubling is the mind.
The body [including the brain] always shows to be the source and projector of the mind, shown evidently by the fact that the limits of the body (perceptions) limits the mind. You can only imagine Obama in your mind now because you have seen Obama before, a blind man cannot place an image of what obama looks like in his mind...
Here is a difference, Intelligence is a tiny arena of an organism possible because of it'£ perceptibility and ability to analyse information. In the context of these Bots, there are basically programmed with a crude imitation of the brain [C.P.U] in a computer, to be able to process and analyze information, an algorithm, to derive result. The mind in order words exceeds intelligence, the intrinsic randomness of the biological machination derives broad horizons of manifestations, imaginations, perceptibility, cognition, dream, emotion. Bots can only simulate in order words we are just vaguely trying to project the basic sense of our neurological ability in mechanical simulations. so something can be basically intelligent in a simple level of procession but that is not limited to mind. Asking how can something be intelligent without mind is like asking how something can flying without wings
The bolded is totally untrue i wonder who ever told you that or claimed that. . . Every living being with perceptibility is conscious. Consciousness in a simple definition is ability or totality of awareness, consciousness is not a human thing. There is only levels of consciousness ranging from basic perceptibility to intrinsic perceptibility like one humans have... Like i pointed out limit to perceptibility limits the mind also. A plant is simply aware, it is aware of light in it's surrounding- Photoreceptive... so in a basic sense plants are conscious. A dogs consciousness exceeds that of a plant, a dog feels, a dog even makes decisions. the same emotions that ruled you also is prevalent and evidential in dogs and other complex animals examples. -love -anger -sadness -fear those are projections of the mind, a neurological chemistry... So a dog or any other animal out there is conscious as you are. It only differs in degrees as the perceptive ability or level of central neurological capability [Brain power]
How do you think these comes about, these are all results of the chemistry going on in the brain. E.G: Love is a mind thing but this is as a result of dopamine in the brain, anger is adrenaline. So is this really the mind suffering or the body projecting it's anomalies ?
Yet hilters eyes is not Mother Terasa's, legs not the same, DNA differs... we are each of us the same in a literal basic sense but different at a tiny miniscule level that also affects our macro-state.
Here a few questions are begged. -Is that you see nothing? or -you did not see what you expect? -Is that which you expect to see independent of that which you actually do see when you open up the brain?
And yet it falls back to can there be a "MIND" without perceptibility, consciousness, generally the body? From all above the "Body" ended up not being a mere container but became the actual seat of beam projector of the mind. We still have many things to learn 1 Like |
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