Do you fear to die or refuse to think of that matter. During times the fear of dear is the deep source of the talk about Armageddon and the eschatology. To face to die is a hard one to swallow. We do need the hope that the end really isn’t the ultimate end at all. So an end of the world must have inside a hope of something new and better.
Most of us thinking about the end of our personal life and existing refuse to accept that. We create a hope that the dead must be a beginning of something new. Life will continue and we wish to never stop thinking and being living and existing.
Maybe that’s a main reason of religions like Jehovah’s Witnesses and others like them. Giving a hope of an end that isn’t and ends after all.
Are that fear a part of you and does it influence your way of living and thinking. Or do you feel the freedom of that?
Yes, I think fear of death is a major motivation behind the world's religions. That and a search for answers to explain those questions in life that are un-answerable or incomprehensable for mankind. Of course the more technology advances the less need for religion I think we will see. And the fact that many people are becoming more comfortable with the facts that some questions are not answerable (at this time anyway).
At this time in my life I do not fear death. I know it will happen, and I say, when it does it does. I try and make as much of each day as I can. For me and those close to me. Why fret over something you have no control over (in the fact that you WILL die at some point ...)
I fear death, but only the suffering that leads up to it. Afterwards, if there is something after, if it's not better than this, then put me back to 'sleep'.
It's pretty clear that religion in the sense that we know it began to develop around the same time that our ancestors began ceremonially burying their dead - an indication that they had started feeling that there was something beyond death.
I've come to the conclusion that religion is just one of many superstitious ways we deal with our fear of death. We simply cannot accept that this life is it. So, we tell ourselves stories and myths, and then start believing that they are fact.
Do I want to die? No. Too much to do. Do I fear death? Not in any morbid sense. I'm just sad at all I'll be leaving behind. I need to live a long, long life to even begin to feel that I've done a fraction of what I want to do. S4
Your question reminds me of the opening pages of Milan Kundera's book, 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being.' His main point seems to be that if our lives have no repercussions once we are dead, if they are meaningless, then existence itself is unbearably 'light'. But, conversely, if everything that we do has eternal consequences, then the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make.
I've spent most of my life thinking about immediate concerns, rather than death. And as an atheist, Armageddon and judgement, etc weren't even a consideration. But I became a Christian nearly 3 years ago - and the prospect of death holds no fear. Quite the opposite. As Paul said, being with Christ will be better by far.
