Why do humans fear death?

[Shakkara]

Over the past years I have tried to analyze general human behavour, and while there are many things I do not understand, I only want to address a single one in this particular thread, hoping that the members of this forum could provide a coherent answer.

 

The particular trait I want to discuss is fear of death, which appears to be present in the majority of humans, in various degrees. As far as I found out so far, there are three fears on which it is based:

 

Fear of the unknown,

Fear of pain,

Fear of the possibility that one ceases to exist.

 

(I deliberately leaving fear of a vengeful god or similar religious reasons out of this)

 

Fear for pain is something I can understand somewhat, so to make things easier in the rest of the thread just assume we are talking about painless ways of dying.

 

Even with the other two reasons why one might fear death, I still do not understand it, since I personally have no fear of the unknown and have no fear for ceasing to exist either.

 

Can anyone of you explain the reasons behind this behavour? Are there things I have missed?

[Peregrine]

Note: the following assumes that you don't believe in an afterlife, like me.

 

Simple, its the fear of nothing. Complete, total, nonexistence, and you won't even know you're dead. All that is you, just gone forever. If there's nothing beyond death, that's hardly the most pleasant subject.

[Ancalagon]

Yeah, I admit I fear nothingness. As I was in my car accident, my first reaction was just how fast it happened, and that I could be snuffed out and not really know it...but it is about the Nothingness, that would be crap. That's why I want to get an Immortality thing going, because being doomed to life would be better than being doomed to non-existence.

[Zmid]

Interesting question. I would guess it's the fear of the unknown that most humans have (nobody really knows for absolutely certain what happens after death)combined with our natural survival instinct, which is brought about by evolution. After all, species that want to die don't tend to survive very long. ;)

[Shakkara]

First I would like to note two things:

 

I personally do not believe in God, but I do believe in reincarnation, however, I am fully aware that I could be wrong and do not assume my beliefs are facts, not even to myself, and am open to the possibility that there is nothing beyond this life.

 

I have been in a possible life-threatening situation three times, one was a carcrash, the second was the building I was in being on fire and the third was a robbery with several guys of which one threatened me with a knife. None of those situations worried me in any way.

 

 

Now on with the reply:

 

But that's exactly one of the things I do not understand. What's so bad about not existing? You said it yourself, you don't even know that you are dead.

 

And I must point out that trying to escape death with whatever form of immortality you wish to come up with is rather pointless. Our existance is linear, and therefore it will have to end one day, be it tomorrow or in a few billion years when the universe collapses or whatever other cataclysmic event occurs. The only thing you can try is to freeze yourself in time, however that is not much different from non-existance, and I personally prefer to die above that fate.

[Pikeman85]

I would say it's due more to our self preservation instincts, rather than just fear of the unknown.

[Akrid]

I know what happens after we die, we rot. I do not really care about mot existing in one way becuase yes it's inevitable, but on the other hand it's not any of the three reasons that I would be afraid. The reason I fear death is not becase of what happens during or after it's because of before, all the things I can't ever affect anything again, that also is fate. It also depends on the type of death, if it's a car crash or gun shot, whatever Stinky Heaps In Toilets happen. But if sombody is going to pull out my finger-nails with plyers and feed me to hugery rat's I might be a little afraid B)

I have been in a possible life-threatening situation three times, one was a carcrash, the second was the building I was in being on fire and the third was a robbery with several guys of which one threatened me with a knife. None of those situations worried me in any way.

If this is true then maybe you have a chemical imbalance, you could be suicidal, I can't tell you I'm not a brain doctor. It seems to me you have found nothing to live for in life. I have been in some tight spots before, I had diffrent reactions to each. Somtimes i felt excited and everything went by in a rush, other times everything happens in slow motion and I feel out of it. Fear for life is a natural reaction you should have.

[Pikeman85]

I doubt it has to do with a chemical imbalance (that is thrown away way too often imo) it could be just clear headedness and a knack for dealing with tough situations. Not being worried and being suicidal are two VERY different things. If he wasn't worried, then he likely wasn't suicidal, although he could have been depressed even deeper (Generally when you are at the worst you can be in depression, you cannot do anything, not even kill yourself. This is why depressed people often get a little better, THEN kill themselves.) But I doubt he was. But it's of course up to him to say why he wasn't worried.

[Shakkara]

I would say it's due more to our self preservation instincts, rather than just fear of the unknown.

I personnaly believe we shouldn't let instincts influence our actions.

[Shakkara]

I know what happens after we die, we rot.

Not if you are cremated or die in a way that doesn't leave much of a corpse ^_^

 

I do not really care about mot existing in one way becuase yes it's inevitable, but on the other hand it's not any of the three reasons that I would be afraid. The reason I fear death is not becase of what happens during or after it's because of before, all the things I can't ever affect anything again, that also is fate.

Hmm, so I understand from this that you have a 'problem' with losing your ability to influence the course of events in this world. Apparantly that doesn't bother me much either, but that is food for the next thread about 'wierd' human behavour: "why do humans desire power?"

 

It also depends on the type of death, if it's a car crash or gun shot, whatever Stinky Heaps In Toilets happen. But if sombody is going to pull out my finger-nails with plyers and feed me to hugery rat's I might be a little afraid B) .

Like I said in my initial post, you don't have to worry about those nasty things :)

 

I have been in a possible life-threatening situation three times, one was a carcrash, the second was the building I was in being on fire and the third was a robbery with several guys of which one threatened me with a knife. None of those situations worried me in any way.

If this is true then maybe you have a chemical imbalance, you could be suicidal, I can't tell you I'm not a brain doctor. It seems to me you have found nothing to live for in life. I have been in some tight spots before, I had diffrent reactions to each. Somtimes i felt excited and everything went by in a rush, other times everything happens in slow motion and I feel out of it. Fear for life is a natural reaction you should have.

Well it certainly isn't the type of reaction I experience. And that chemical imbalance stuff is used for everyone and everything that doesn't fall in the 'normal' catagory. Yes we are all chemically different, but no, I don't wish to have the 'imbalanced' label placed on me :P