Death refers to the end of worldly life. People fear death for a variety of reasons. They are afraid because it is the final moment of parting beloved ones, it may be a painful process, it makes them feel that there is a countdown for their existence and they may not achieve all they hoped or planned, or they may fear the unknown after death. Death is the final adventure as a person of this earth, it is the closing of the door on this earthly reality. An unnatural obsession and fear of death can lead to an inactive and deadened society, it is important to find a way to overcome these effects to cause good to come of the inevitable end of life.
Fearing death is ongoing because death cannot be avoided. Also, what comes after death is unseen. The effects of fearing death can sometimes be a positive force on people’s behavior, because it directs them to do good deeds in order to have a good reward in an afterlife. Some people who fear death and do not believe in an afterlife may spend every second of their lives indulging in the beauties of this life, without considering consequences. They are seen as materialistic and selfish due to the idea that there is no life other than the present one, thus they must enjoy the present in the way they like.
On the other hand, some people consider death as transitory stage to the other life. Thus, they prepare themselves for a life after death. This kind of belief comes from a religious commitment, or from some people who are suffering of such diseases prefer dying rather than suffering. This issue matters because it affects human behavior. For example, religious people are more likely to do good deeds for better spiritual preparation to face death. As a result, they spend their lives l...
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...ortant for people to feel comfortable with death and learn, through social means, that it is not a terrible thing. How the social world portrays death can have a serious impact on how one feels about the end of their life. It is important to find ways of motivating people to do good things with their life and build up their community before parting ways. It will always be a somewhat sad event for those left behind, but death must be embraced more as a chapter of life, a closing of one door and an opening of another. Only in this light can death be used as a benefit to society rather than a tool to terrify people into inaction.
Works cited
Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: Free, 1973. Print.
Hanson, Robin. "Fear of Death and Muddled Thinking – It Is So Much Worse Than You
Think." (2005): 1-8. Web. 17 June 2011. .
Death is perceived as a bad thing to most people in the world, though it is natural and inevitable. Every person who has ever lived has also died and so will everyone who ever lives. So why are people so afraid of it? Is it because death entails an endless blackness and lack of anything or anyone? Or as others believe, is it because death is a permanent end to life? It must be that people fear death because it deprives us of the good things life brings such as feeling, emotion, and perception among other things. Thomas Nagel raised three problems with this irrational fear of death:
Is it possible to live without fear of death? If you can, does it change your life and who you are as a whole? Lindqvist believes so. Early in the book he proposes the idea that with fear of death life has a deeper meaning. That only with the fear of death do...
Terror management theory (TMT) asserts that human beings have natural tendency for self-preservation if there is threat to one’s well–being (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). It notes that we are the cultural animals that pose self-awareness on the concept of past and future, as well as the understanding that one day we will die. We concern about our life and death but aware that it is unexpected by everything. The worse matter is that we become aware of our vulnerability and helplessness when facing death-related thoughts and ultimate demise (Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1992). The inevitable death awareness or mortality salience provides a ground for experiencing the existential terror, which is the overwhelming concern of people’s mortality and existence. In order to avoid the continued existence of threats, people need faith in a relatively affirmative and plausive cultural worldview and meaning of life (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1995). Cultural worldview is a perceptual construction in the society which explaining the origins of life and the existence of afterlife. We have to invest a set of cultural worldviews by ourselves that are able to provide meaning, stability and order to our lives and to offer the promise of death transcendence (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004). On the other hand, we hold a belief that one is living up to the standards of value prescribed by that worldview and social norm shared by a group of people. This belief is derived by self-esteem of individual. We maintain the perception and confident that we are fulfilling the cultural prescriptions for value in the society and are thus eligible for some form of personal immortality (Landau & Greenberg, 2006). We Together with the assump...
Fear of death comes from the unknown, unless we have a near-death experience, as that could possibly calm us and clear away the fear of death. If we have an experience of dying here, then we will be willing to die over and over again, because there is nothing to fear–as each breath ceases, then a new breath is coming in. It is a cycle of birth, old age, illness and death. When one’s dead, a new life comes about almost instantaneously. But, while we are still alive, we fear death as it is a mystery: nevertheless we do not like talking about it in a way parallel to discussions about ill-health. We avoid talking about it and view it as abhorrent or bad luck. It is a natural process that no one can deny or avoid, yet we all exist in the same way, whence we come and depart.
According to Ernest Becker, “The main thesis of this book is that it explains: the idea of death, the fear of death that haunts humans like nothing else; the mainspring of human activity designed to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man” (“Becker” ix). The author of this book describes and quotes many other psychological thinkers views on the different kinds of fear and what contributes to the fear of death in man. The author explores several topics like self-worth, heroism, fear, anxiety, depression and many other issues throughout this book.
Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometimes cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death, but the unknown that comes from death, that is the
When people ponder death they wonder about the unknown with trepidation. As a young man, William Cullen Bryant wrote the "Thanatopsis." His thoughts progress from the fear of death to the acceptance of the event. People should not fear death because everyone dies and becomes a part of nature.
Death is part of the circle of life and it's the end of your time on earth; the end of your time with your family and loved ones. Nobody wants to die, leaving their family and missing the good times your loved ones will have once you pass on. In the Mercury Reader, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross “On the Fear of Death” and Joan Didion “Afterlife” from The Year of Magical Thinking” both share common theses on death and grieving. Didion and Kübler-Ross both explain grieving and dealing with death. Steve Jobs commencement speech for Stanford’s graduation ceremony and through personal experience jumps further into death and how I feel about it. Your time is on earth is limited one day you will die and there are many ways of grieving at the death of a loved one. I believe that the fear of death and the death of a loved one will hold you back from living your own life and the fear of your own death is selfish.
If one fears death, then one claims to know that death is not the greatest of all blessings for man.
Many people seem to fear death, but philosophers such as Socrates and Epicurus would argue that one has no reason to fear it. Socrates sees death as a blessing to be wished for if death is either nothingness or a relocation of the soul, whereas Epicurus argues that one shouldn't worry themselves about death since, once we are gone, death is annihilation which is neither good nor bad. Epicurus believes that death itself is a total lack of perception, wherein there is no pleasure or pain. I agree with Epicurus because Socrates doesn't give a sound argument for death as a blessing, whereas Epicurus' argument is cogent. I would also argue personally that death is not something to be feared because, like Epicurus, I see no sufficient evidence showing we even exist after death.
The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. For it is the society that has great impact on the individual’s beliefs. Hence, it is also possible for other cultures to influence the people of a different culture on such comprehensions. The primary and traditional way men and women have made dying a less depressing and disturbing idea is though religion. Various religions offer the comforting conception of death as a begining for another life or perhaps a continuation for the former.
Death is the one great certainty in life. Some of us will die in ways out of our control, and most of us will be unaware of the moment of death itself. Still, death and dying well can be approached in a healthy way. Understanding that people differ in how they think about death and dying, and respecting those differences, can promote a peaceful death and a healthy manner of dying.
Intro : Introduce the concept of death, and how the concept of death is shown to be something to be feared
In BJ Millers TedTalk, “What Really Matters at the End of Life?” BJ Miller discusses on how we think on death and honor life. He speaks to the audience about how for the most people the scariest thing about death is not death itself, it is actually dying or suffering. The targeted audience is everyone in the world, because eventually everyone is going to die and everyone thinks about death. BJ 3 has big points in the article saying, Distinction between necessary and unnecessary suffering. Also by having a little ritual that helps with this shift in perspective. Another point is to lift and set our sights on well-being. We need to lift our sights, to set our sights on well-being, so that life and health and healthcare can become about making life more wonderful, rather than just less horrible.
Death is something that causes fear in many peoples lives. People will typically try to avoid the conversation of death at all cost. The word itself tends to freak people out. The thought of death is far beyond any living person’s grasp. When people that are living think about the concept of death, their minds go to many different places. Death is a thing that causes pain in peoples lives, but can also be a blessing.