Real Estate?

[Ryokan]

As an athiest, how do you deal with death?
Personally I hide from it, and when it happens, I curse the unfairness of reality. Is that effective, healthy, or intelligent? No. But it is honest.

How do you cope with death, and face it in the world and admist those you care about?

[Ryokan]

In case your are wondering about the title, I assume you are familiar with the term buying the farm.

[Barron]

I'm really not sure how I deal with it. Sometimes I think about it, other times I don't. I'm not sure how much of that is just simple practicality and how much is denial. I mean thinking about death or intentionally NOT thinking about it all the time sure isn't healthy. But death is a part of life, so it can 't be ignored. When I was younger it bothered me more and I seriously considered trying to "convince" myself of reincarnation so as not to have that worry. Never managed the trick though.

My more mature outlook is one of honest ignorance. I know that anything I imagine death to be like will be wrong. Why? Because I don't think a conscious being can even imagine what not being conscious is like. We tend to sort of fall back on things we know (sleep, dark rooms, deafness, blindness, isolation, etc). But all of these are just wrong headed. We don't and (I argue) CAN'T know what death is like. And while that ignorance may be sort of disconcerting I think it is less frightening than our middle of the night imaginings.

When it comes to other people I deal with death the way most people (religious or not) do. I cry and rage and sleep a lot. I hate that the world has taken away from me a conscious being that I cared about. That I won't be able to interact with that person, won't be able to experience them, won't be able to love them directly. Not a fun experience, huh? I try to be all brave and rational and all, but there are limits.

Barron

[Archimedes]

I'm not sure if it's possible to get completely rid of the fear of death, but my opinion is that thinking about it a lot helps. I know my loved ones will die eventually. I know I will die. I suppose the best thing I can do is to be prepared, so I go through various death scenarios in my head every now and then.

[Gilgaron]

The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato

p29 A-C

"To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think on knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. And surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to beleive that one knows what one does not know."

Socrates said that. The historical one, that is :)

[Ryokan]

Good point, Gilgarion. But as a animal I have a deep seated fear of the unknown.

[ACow]

Basically, just get over the fear of the unknown.

We all know deep down inside that its going to happen to us (you know, deeper down inside than those fantasies about creating an elixir of immortality :teeth: ) and there's pretty much nothing we can do about it.

I'm not saying you should welcome it, but you definitely shouldn't be in fear of it. Accept it for what it is, a part of living, something that we all have to deal with, and just be ready for whatever happens when it finally arrives.

The way i look it, i admit i don't know what's going to happen, or what its going to be like. When you can truly admit that you don't know something like that, and be completely comforable with it, well, then you can get on with living. And once you've admitted it to yourself, you can even begin to question and wonder about death without fear.:cheers:

Unfortunately, very few others seem so comfortable about the topic. Not exactly dinner party fare:teeth:

[Ben Franklin]

Death is pretty heavy... it's the end of one's existence: no wonder it's frightening... I don't mean to sound flip, but thinking about it just makes it more scary... it's best to do your best in life, and when death does come, accept it... Me, I cheated death a few years back... While riding a bicycle, I was rammed from behind by a car... In that instant, when I realized what was happening, my only thought was to roll away from the street as quickly as possible... I miraculously escaped being crushed under the car's wheels... Death can happen suddenly or not for many, many years: it's not something you can necessarily avoid, so dwelling on it seems useless to me... For me, it's like the ugly, other side of the "What is life all about" coin... Just let it go...

[Bob Jenkins]

One two recent occasions, I have had an opportunity to discuss with others, this topic and I thought that it might serve to let Tweb know a little about me.

First of all, I have no terror of death. I am satisfied that it will be another unconscious sleep from which there will be no wakening. This is based partly on physical experience. Several times, my heart has stopped (bardycardia) and several times it went into such a rapid, life threatening arrhythmia called tachycardia. Had this lasted for a few moments/minutes longer by brain would have ceased receiving oxygen and I would have met both clinical indicators of death. When these incidents happened, I became conscienceless. It is very little stretch of the mind to suppose that, being so near death, death would be like this.

I'll relate another incident that happened when I suffered my heart attack. It was massive and while in the hospital I went into episodes of tachycardia. During one of those, I had a vision of myself before a fork in the road shrouded with fog. I understood that I could choose death by going to the path on the left fork and life by taking the one on the right. I thought that I would choose life because I was not done living yet. That was 1983, December 24th.

I have seen the "face" of death and I have not now, nor at those times, have any fear of death. This is but one facet in my atheistic philosophy.

However, I must talk about my living for a fuller picture. I have been fortunate to have had a wonderful life with really minor troughs. I believe my life peaks have been so much higher than any depths I experienced. It has been a wonderful life and continues to get better now that I have Gail. I am not in any hurry to trade that in on death, but when death occurs, I will be satisfied with all that I have received from life and it will have been more than sufficient. I will not be sorry to die but thankful I lived.

There is a sadness on my part about dying. Namely, that the grief of those that survive me is something I do not want to be personally held responsible. I really do not like to hurt the people that love me. I will not be available for giving comfort at my own demise. That troubles me. I will feel no pain and my loved ones will. There is no solution to this problem and I just have to accept it.

[Ryokan]

You are very reasonable man Bob. I wish I was that mature.