what is it?
some say death is the greatest evil, some the greatest good, which is it?
is all religion and philosophy, at bottom concerned with death, fear or overcoming of it?
are we immortal?
why should non being concern us if there was infinite time before we were?
is there a rational reason to fear death?
is the death of a human being different from that of a brute?
postscript: or is death extended sleep?
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Random thoughts 
I’m in no hurry to leave this world. I’d rather be a small fish in the huge ocean of humanity than a nothing in a sea of oblivion.
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I, too, don’t want to quit now.
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the only reason I wish death wouldn’t come is that it means I’ll not get to see and do all what I want. Other than that, I don’t find death scary, only a reason that I have to miss those that have died.
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I tell people usually the reason I haven’t killed myself yet is because of a book am yet to finish. This is in jest but usually meant to say death should come but not just yet
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As club touched on, death is annoying because you’re leaving the party while its still going on.
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Exactly John. I don’t want to leave the party now, not yet.
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I’d at least like to see man on Mars.
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Better yet, Martians on Earth. That’s something worth living for.
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Exactly. Is it too much to ask for to see the earth from space… the whole earth.
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Hahaha, a zombie apocalypse ala the one the author of Mathew talks of in his gospel
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Now that’s something to look forward to. I however would go for equitable and peaceful world
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Will never happen, not until we get off this rock.
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Hitch?
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He did say something like that, didn’t he? I thought it quite profound.
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I have a feeling it was in his interview with Jeremy Paxman at Hitch’s home.
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I’m with you, John. Things happen with astounding speed nowadays. So many changes — sometimes in a matter of days or weeks! I really hate knowing I won’t be around to see it all. 😦
As for Mak’s question about fearing death — I try not to, but it’s a pretty big handicap of life.
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Nan, do you think the reason for fearing death or seeing it is a handicap is rational or arises from elsewhere?
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Yes, I do feel that fearing death is rational. I don’t think any of us want to die — except, perhaps, those who wish to escape constant pain and suffering — and even they take medication that allows them to “sleep into death” (in states where it is allowed).
Some may say they don’t “fear” death, but when push comes to shove and we are looking it square in the eye, when we know it is coming within a matter of minutes … how many of us are going to say … Yippee! I finally get to end this life!
I call it a “handicap” of life in that we cannot escape it. It is always with us.
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Like Clint Eastwood once said to Gene Hackman: “Gene, I don’t wanna die cause not being here to spend all this money I’ve made is gonna suck.”
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that’s gonna suck. Let me die, but after I spend the money
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The problem is I don’t feel hardly different than I did ten years ago, and no doubt felt similar ten years before that as well.
I do all the things I did back then and have added some new ”strings to the bow” as I have gone along.
So the thought of dying – albeit it’s a long ways in the future – simply pisses me off.
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would you prefer it came sooner than in the distant future
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Not at all, to be honest. I would be perfectly happy to live for hundreds and hundreds of years.
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I don’t fear death if it comes I am prepared. However I would like it to continue for a few or twenty years. I watched a special on cloning meat and eventually humans. Organs…perhaps. People? I hope this does not happen in my life.
What would happen if it was possible to clone exactly as we are with ALL the memories?
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In Robert Reed’s Great Ships novels humans are virtually immortal, the stories set over tens and even hundreds of thousands of years. It’s interesting.
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what do they do with all that time?
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You’ll have to read to know 😉
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John, that will be a long time before I read. Is there a movie? I think that is the easiest way for me to deal with SciFi
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Sadly, I fear no studio would touch his stories. It’s possible, but the scope of them is hard to contain.
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Too bad for me
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I wouldn’t want to be cloned. I think an existence with no foreseeable end could be boring.
Would we engage in philosophy if we didn’t die?
I would want it to stay away for another 40 years
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I agree O- however, not confronted with the possibility of an offer its easy to say !
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Think about it, what if there was no death, would life be as pleasurable?
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Let me just say that if the offer truly presented itself I would take a long time to answer. Many intangibles yet alluring as well….extended pleasure? How can that be bad?
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Don’t you think they are pleasurable because we know they end? Imagine a constant supply of your favourite tea, you will sooner or later get tired of it, you wish for something else
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So if life was eternal I would then find a new tea !!!
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Hahaha! Good one. You win my friend.
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My goal is not to win just to examine the tantalizing possibilities of something that does not exist. My thoughts parallel that of the mythological vampire , does my family also remain forever young or do I continue alone? Alone would be …..lonely.
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With no possibility of death, do you continue to live with your annoying uncle or you move away to a different place? What would war achieve if one can’t kill their enemies? Is there need to eat if one can’t die?
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My question remains, is this scenario just me or the entire world suddenly lives forever? I think world wide birth control would be needed ASAP 🙂
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Let’s consider scenario 1 only you live forever and 2 everyone isn’t dying? Kurt Vonnegut addressed a scenario two kind of possibility in 2BRO2B
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You know, of course, that your questions about living forever vs. death are beginning to remind me of the “eternal bliss” that awaits our Christian “friends” and that they think will be sooooo wonderful. Yet when questioned what they will do with their “time,” they have few answers. Worship God? For eternity? Huh.
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Nan I don’t think they have asked themselves how long eternity would be singing hallelujah. Plus how many can stand a church service going beyond an hour?
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At what physical capacity John?
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Our brains have more or less been replaced with ceramics which have more capacity, and our bodies are flooded with nonotech that heals and mends. Essentially, you can be blown apart by a nuclear explosion (as one character is), but just as long as a fragment of the body is recovered you can be re-grown. Reed is a fabulous writer with a gigantic imagination.
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Kind of reminds me of the movie Transcendence which I found intriguing….to a point.
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Is that one where Depp becomes a sort of internet hybrid thing? In Reed’s books we’re still human, we just don’t decay, and if we get injured we repair quite quickly. That helps given the central theme of the books, which is a 250,000 year “cruise” (for want of a better word) around the galaxy in a Neptune sized ship (built by who, no one knows) that is as old as the universe and which was found empty just outside our galaxy.
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So would you do it?
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Explore! 🙂
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You?
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I cannot answer honestly but I think not !
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I think not too
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I fear not death, Maybe how it’ll come at me. To make it sound less grim, one can say it’s extended sleep.
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So if you were assured of it coming in your sleep, you would be wait for it gladly
How are you friend?
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If the day comes, I would wait for it… I’m good, how have you been?
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I have been well.
I see you have been reading and doing marathon reviews. I wish I could read fast or have just more time for it
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This month seems dull and I wanted to challenge myself a bit. Reading freshens the mind and helps one think clearer. I’m actually almost done with my third book this week.
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3rd book! How do you do it?
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I’ve put everything I was to do on hold. Especially those which are not urgent. Once you start you’re unable to stop, plus, the books I’ve selected are short reads so one can compete a book within hours.
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Maybe I should try this over the weekend
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Hello Mak, I agree with the others that I enjoy life too much right now to seek the end of it. However I also was clinically dead in 1981 from malnutrition. I do not know if near death experiences are something spiritual or simply brain / body chemistry. What I can say is the experience was so positive, so peaceful, so kind for someone who needed kindness in his life, that after that I no longer fear death. I wont look for it, but when it comes I am quite content. My goal is to live my life so that I have no regrets, no “I wish I had”, no recriminations, just simply being happy to have lived and now to let happen what will. Hugs
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No bright light? No Jesus? No family member who had “passed on”?
Seriously, your NDE sounds much more reasonable than some that are touted. I’m glad it left you with a peace and positive outlook.towards death. I think many would be envious. Hugs to you too. 🙂
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Thank you Nan. No religious component at all. The fact is I did not see a god, did not see a religious figure or a holy land of any book. I remember just before I coded feeling so heavy, there was a huge weight on my chest and I couldn’t breath. I was tired, so tired, and it was just easier not to fight. I was so tired. Then I was not there any more, not in the hospital ICU , not in our world as I knew it. It all seemed very real to me, but the brain has it’s own tricks , and I felt I was swimming in a warm pool, a comfortable and enjoyable place. It felt so good, no more pain, no hunger, no fear, no worries.. To me at that age I guess that might have been what some would call heaven. I was very happy, at that point n my life one of the few times I was. I felt no demands, no responsibility, no harm, just floating in warm water comfortable. I decided to swim to the surface yet while it was a slightly brighter area it was not the “bright lights of heaven” I hear some say. But before I could get to it. Get very far, a voice, and the voice was female to me then, and so kind, so nice, said no, you must go back, you can’t come here, it is not to be. The voice was saying I had to go back, and as kind as it was, I did not want to … I argued why, but got no response, just you must go back.. Then I woke up in the hospital ICU bed. They had restarted my heart and got me going again. The doctor leaned over me about to say something and I croaked ” why did you do that to me, why did you bring me back???” He looked sad and tired and said something I have always remembered. ” I get asked that a lot in these situations, I get asked that and I have no answer, except it is my duty to keep people alive and I don’t know what you saw or felt, but I had to do what I could to keep a kid alive” Later we talked and he thought I would hate him, but I did not. I just remembered the calm, the wonderful feeling of not hurting, not being in fear, not worried, just floating happy in warm water. If that is the after life for me I have no fear of it at all. Thanks and hugs
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I don’t know, I think all NDEs are natural events, people choose to assign them spiritual meanings.
Living a life of regrets is useless. One only need accept they would not have acted any other way than they did then.
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Again I can see this. I simply don’t know what happens in the brain, the chemistry, or oxygen level or whatever. My NDE did not have a religious feeling or componente, just peace, happiness, no pain, no fear, simply being warm, happy, comfortable. I saw no heaven , no hell, no gods. So I simply don’t know what it was or where I was, I just know what I FELT. Hugs
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Scottie, I am not disagreeing with you any bit. My point maybe it was unrelated is I think all experience are natural. The only question is interpretation
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I’m not afraid of dying, what I confess to be afraid of is suffering.
As for the moment of death, I ike Somerset Maugham’s tale, “Appointment at Samarra”. It is a short story but perhaps a bit too large to copy and paste here. Google presents it immediatly on demand.-
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I recall that narrative by Somerset.
ION I will respond to your mail soon. Been reading the link you sent.
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[…] Now that I have your attention, we can continue with this discussion. […]
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[…] and it makes all kinds of sense. Earlier this year Makagutu had a post asking people about their views on death. I would have loved to have replied with this quote, but that would not have been honest. I did not […]
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