The bases of death anxiety... which affect you the most?

[°Leprechaun]

No, death is only a problem for those left behind. If one's personal death is truly death it is nothing and therefore nothing to be feared.

Nothing is a terrifying concept inherently.

So... some people have trouble with wrapping their head around the concept of what "nothing" means. It is almost as if "nothing" is somehow "something" rather than really not something.

[afleitch]

I can't believe I've not posted here. I love discussing death!

No, death is only a problem for those left behind. If one's personal death is truly death it is nothing and therefore nothing to be feared.

Nothing is a terrifying concept inherently.

So... some people have trouble with wrapping their head around the concept of what "nothing" means. It is almost as if "nothing" is somehow "something" rather than really not something.

Exactly. Nothing is nothing.

As I always say, nothing was everything before our consciousness and it had no lasting effects.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I love discussing death!

And yet you wonder why some people don't like you. 

More seriously, no matter one's belief system, death is not the eradication of self, as even in a severely materialistic POV, it doesn't change the fact that a period of time you existed and will always exist in that time frame.

[Dr. MB]

Nobody knwos whats gonna happen

Only God knows

[Aurelius]

I don't fear death, honestly. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It's an inescapable part of the cycle of life. I suppose I fear premature or sudden death, before it's really my time to go.

Let the inevitability of death be a motivator to leave some sort of mark on the world so that your memory lives on long after your body returns to the Earth and your soul fades away back to the nothingness from which it came. And that you may be remembered with respect and appreciation, not resentment or derision.

My experience with chronic, severe mental illness influences my perspective. For some purpose or other God (in the deistic sense) has chosen to given me this torment to wrestle with - and I have a few theories - and it is comforting to know that this internal Hell will someday come to an end. But suffering is an inescapable part of life, without which the joys of life would have no meaning. I have many things I want to fulfill on this Earth while I'm still around, and I pray that God grant me the strength to continue to bear my accompanying suffering for hopefully many fruitful decades to come.

Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not a nihilist, anti-natalist, suicidal, pro-suicide, or whatever else. Life is the most beautiful thing in this universe and I am infinitely grateful to experience it. My suffering is only one component. It just is comforting in a way to know that the pain is not eternal.

[Blue3]

Does the idea that the Earth will one day be destroyed, that the universe itself will someday end, influence anyone else's death anxiety? To know that no legacy will last forever, that eventually there will be a last generation.

[afleitch]

Does the idea that the Earth will one day be destroyed, that the universe itself will someday end, influence anyone else's death anxiety? To know that no legacy will last forever, that eventually there will be a last generation.

When digging into my ancestry, I realised I was more than likely one of the only people to care about these people, their lives and families and what they did, in a hundred plus years.

Unless you're famous or infamous, little legacy lasts beyond the memory of those who knew you.

[Mr. Smith]

I can't believe I've not posted here. I love discussing death!

No, death is only a problem for those left behind. If one's personal death is truly death it is nothing and therefore nothing to be feared.

Nothing is a terrifying concept inherently.

So... some people have trouble with wrapping their head around the concept of what "nothing" means. It is almost as if "nothing" is somehow "something" rather than really not something.

Exactly. Nothing is nothing.

As I always say, nothing was everything before our consciousness and it had no lasting effects.

1. Going back to nothing from something IS something, that something, which is nothing, is on a very primordial level a very negative change.

2. No, nothing is no longer just nothing anymore, you've introduced something. Just moving from something to not something is something.

Pain, grief, sadness, aches, all of these are more relatable to our state than nothing at this point.

And frankly, like William Wordsworth, I'm not so convinced there was nothing before consciousness as we know it, in which case...

[Person Man]

Personally uncertainty for me. I don't know what to believe since there are so many different views on what happens when we die, and nothing to prove any of them.

I think uncertainty and leaving loved ones are probably the ones that affect the most people, though, leaving loved ones could also be tied into uncertainty if you really think about it.

I wonder how you changed on this.

[Person Man]

For me...

-failure of life work completion (particularly if I'm a father of young children when it happens)

-annihilation/finality... it possibly being "The End"



I might also add

-not really me leaving loved ones... more like "the pain my death would cause for loved ones"

-not knowing how things turn out in the future

-death being involuntary and forced upon us

This is a good list.

[DaleCooper]

The only part of it I care about is leaving unfinished business behind. I can learn to, ironically, live with the other ones.

[Blue3]

For me...

-failure of life work completion (particularly if I'm a father of young children when it happens)

-annihilation/finality... it possibly being "The End"



I might also add

-not really me leaving loved ones... more like "the pain my death would cause for loved ones"

-not knowing how things turn out in the future

-death being involuntary and forced upon us

This is a good list.

Yeah, one of the biggest shocks when trying to accept the idea of my future death is letting go of the idea that me, or anyone, will ever know how the rest of history turns out..