Fear of Death

Originally posted by Palynka
And yet you don't consider the possibility of not being afraid of lions when they are chasing you.

That one can live without fear through the absence of the need to face death is different of not being afraid. Again, this may sound like semantics, but not all fears need to be ever-present phobias.

Ah, but is that fear of death, or fear of getting torn to pieces.

Likewise, despite someone not being afraid of something, it doesn't mean that they desire for it to happen.

Originally posted by scottishinnz
Ah, but is that fear of death, or fear of getting torn to pieces.

Likewise, despite someone not being afraid of something, it doesn't mean that they desire for it to happen.

Both, obviously.

I don't desire rain if I'm not going to the beach. I don't desire eating a steak if I just had dinner. It's not the same thing at all.

PS: I'm not trying to convince anyone I'm right, this is all highly subjective. I do think people are overcharging the word fear to sound brave. One can love life, fear death and not live in fear. I think most of you are discussing about living in fear, not fearing.

i do fear the dying bit, and especially the geriatric falling to pieces stage, but not death which will im sure be the easiest thing ever. many poets and songwriters spoke of death as a release,
for example this song about growing weak and dying:
YouTube
enjoy
🙂

Originally posted by Palynka
And yet you don't consider the possibility of not being afraid of lions when they are chasing you.

That one can live without fear through the absence of the need to face death is different of not being afraid. Again, this may sound like semantics, but not all fears need to be ever-present phobias.

What I was saying is that if you are not "living in fear" then it is correct English to say that you do not fear death even if you would be afraid if you thought death was imminent. You were implying that it was incorrect.

Maybe we should all be a bit more specific.

I personally do not want to die. I do not think that I am afraid of death in the same way that I would be afraid of a lion though. I am certainly not afraid of death in the same way that many Christians I know are.

Originally posted by twhitehead
What I was saying is that if you are not "living in fear" then it is correct English to say that you do not fear death even if you would be afraid if you thought death was imminent. You were implying that it was incorrect.

Maybe we should all be a bit more specific.

I personally do not want to die. I do not think that I am afraid of death in the sam ...[text shortened]... on though. I am certainly not afraid of death in the same way that many Christians I know are.

Under your definition everyone is fearless unless they're presently afraid of something: I fear nothing because I'm not currently afraid of nothing.

Like I said, you're overcharging the word fear so you can easily refute that it applies.

running away from a lion does not make you afraid of a lion, it just means you do not want to die.

Originally posted by EcstremeVenom
running away from a lion does not make you afraid of a lion, it just means you do not want to die.

Right. 😵

Originally posted by Palynka
Right. 😵

and not wanting to die does not make you afraid of it.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
You won't be when you're dead.

The notion of my atoms' fate is perfectly absurd.

Edit--SPLASH

It's a poetic license, clearly I don't believe it makes a single bit of difference to anything.

Originally posted by Palynka
I think that what Starrman said is all fine and dandy, but I actually don't believe anyone here doesn't fear death (although many won't admit it).

Transforming the meaning of fear into a phobia-like caricature about skeletons is simply avoiding the question. I seriously doubt any of us in face of the possibility of imminent death wouldn't be afraid.

Why so? I think it's because people have yet to seperate death from the cessation of consciousness, in their minds. When we talk of death we really do talk about it in the bogey-man figure sense. You mention imminent death, how do you classify imminent? I'd think it's through a process of dying, ie: a way of being killed, be it murder, disease, road accident etc. It is these processes I think people fear; the pain and suffering, the inability to have said goodbye, regret for not achieving what they wanted to in life, and with good reason. But I believe these things are secondary reasons, death itself should carry no fear, it's just the end of consciousness. These things would be feared in each situation even if death was not a certain eventuality.

There's a social aspect to death which, certainly for me, is in no small part due to religion. I was taught to fear death because judgement lay thereafter and certainly, given the view of heaven and hell I was taught, I was gambling with my soul. It took me a long time to reason this away and to realise that what I think we fear is not death, it's consequence.

Originally posted by EcstremeVenom
running away from a lion does not make you afraid of a lion, it just means you do not want to die.

I dispute this, I see fear of lion induced consequence, not death.

Originally posted by Starrman
It is these processes I think people fear; the pain and suffering, the inability to have said goodbye, regret for not achieving what they wanted to in life, and with good reason. But I believe these things are secondary reasons, death itself should carry no fear, it's just the end of consciousness. These things would be feared in each situation even if death was not a certain eventuality

If we agree that death is the event that brings all those things about, then we must necessarily agree.

If one fears those things, one must necessarily fear death because death entails them all.

Originally posted by Palynka
If we agree that death is the event that brings all those things about, then we must necessarily agree.

If one fears those things, one must necessarily fear death because death entails them all.

I don't agree that death brings these events about. These events are side effects of what brings about death. As I have suggested, if we did not know that death would be the outcome, we'd still fear them. I see it the opposite way round to you.

Originally posted by Palynka
Under your definition everyone is fearless unless they're presently afraid of something: I fear nothing because I'm not currently afraid of nothing.

Like I said, you're overcharging the word fear so you can easily refute that it applies.

It is you that is not hearing me because you want me to say that I fear death. I never said that everyone is fearless unless they're presently afraid of something. I said that the word fear has different meanings depending on context. In fact fearless even "fearless" is hardly the opposite of fearful and even with that word, context is critical.
There is irrational fear, such as fear of a caged lion, or fear of snakes and spiders even when they cannot come close to you. I know you called those phobias, but a phobia is just an extreme fear. Fear can also be used for more rational thought processes especially one of not knowing but suspecting something might happen, like "I fear I may fall over" or "I fear I may be wrong".
But not wanting to die is not fear.

Originally posted by Starrman
It's a poetic license, clearly I don't believe it makes a single bit of difference to anything.

How much does it cost to renew? (I got a fake one 😏 ).