Sleep and Oblivion/Non-existence

[Carol_M]

Wherever my father and mother and husband went, I am not afraid to go.

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

Welcome aboard Carol. My mother, father and three siblings are no longer around but I’m lucky to still have my wife. I have to imagine that was a hard one and will be for me too. I’m sure he was counting on you to take good care of yourself. Hope you are navigating this phase of your life successfully and have good people in your life.

[Carol_M]

Thank you very much for the welcome!

[paleomalacologist (David Campbell)]

Sleep also raises questions about some popular claims about medical ethics. “This individual is not displaying all the mental, emotional, etc. activity associated with being a human, therefore it is acceptable to kill it” would seem to justify harming people in their sleep.

[DGX37]

What we truly fear when we fear death, when we fear not being there?

One possibility is that our body is optimized to survive and it simply hits you with fear and dread when you try to imagine a life without yourself. Maybe it’s a survival instinct so human who creates complex plans will be less likely to go with a plan that can result in his death.
Well, that is quite impossible to completely get rid of, but if you think a lot about death or see others (animals/humans) die, you will get used to it and be less biologically afraid of death.

Another possibility is that you are afraid of leaving your close ones, of leaving your hobbies, of leaving your country and other people you have yet to meet forever, that you will never get back, that you will get stuck in the darkness.
This is also a sensible fear, I think looking at saints or at great people who were not afraid to die helps with that. You either see that those people believed that there will be a day when they once again can meet and talk with each other and they weren’t fools but rather virtuous and wise men, or you see their commitment to life, to get everything you can from it, and realize that fearing death will only hurt you in experiencing life to the fullest.

Finally you also have fear of non-existance, but as was said above, why this fear exists at all? After all you cannot feel pain or pleasure when you don’t exist, what’s the problem then?

I think that’s a fear of something much bigger. After all, most take their existence as a fact, they are right here, they are alive, they make choices. But, after this life, if this “self” will be extinguished, if there was no “me” before I was born, that forces us to see what our being truly is, if we exist only here, right now, and the only thing that differs us from nothingness we will arrive at is this human body, that means we are nothing more than this biological mechanism.

And what a biological mechanism is? Well, it’s a quite complex clump of atoms, similar to a cat, a computer or a rock. This results in realization that one is not a person, but simply a complicated mechanism that acts like one, and this brings fear of non-existence to right here right now, if you will perish after being alive, and right now you are nothing more than this mechanism, then truly, you don’t exist in any meaningful sense.

How do you counter such a fear, such dread? Well, for once, Christianity shatters this possibility. After all, God has died for us, he sacrificed himself for us, would he do that for a simple mechanism ( to him ) that he could duplicate and alter as he pleases? He would just create versions of us that already have knowledge and understanding we would have when we will reach heaven, it would mean that this is a farce, and is God a being that would participate in something meaningless?

Another way, more secular than the first, is that it’s meaningless to think about not existing. If you don’t exist, this body is just a mechanism, well, that’s all. World will go forward, humans will die and be born, and it matters not. Something can only have meaning if you exist, if you don’t it’s meaningless, whether it’s God, a loved one, truth or art. You can, even if not believing in God, just accept solipsism, that you simply are, and it’s an absolute state. All other possibilities are meaningless, they as well may not exist.

[Trippy_Elixir (Kevin)]

@DGX37

Another possibility is that you are afraid of leaving your close ones, of leaving your hobbies, of leaving your country and other people you have yet to meet forever, that you will never get back, that you will get stuck in the darkness.
This is also a sensible fear, I think looking at saints or at great people who were not afraid to die helps with that. You either see that those people believed that there will be a day when they once again can meet and talk with each other and they weren’t fools but rather virtuous and wise men, or you see their commitment to life, to get everything you can from it, and realize that fearing death will only hurt you in experiencing life to the fullest.

I think this accurately describes what i am feeling.

[mitchellmckain (Scientist and Christian)]

I would not describe that as a fear of death but rather as a passion for life.