Debate Are people more afraid of death now than in the past?

ericrdpilot

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Based on what little information I can find on the subject, and my own interpretations, I believe humans were less afraid of death thousands of years ago than they are now. I think part of it might have been religion based, the other part was they dealt with death on a regular basis. They were closer to the natural world and understood death better.
 
There are some that say, and I tend to agree that the root of all anxiety, phobia, OCD, mental disorders etc. stems from the fear of death. . . Thanatophobia.
It could very well be that because we are so focused on ourselves we have become more afraid of dying then we might have been thousands of years ago.
 
There is such a moment that people used to live less, diseases, droughts, hunger, difficult climatic conditions! All this accompanied an already not very good standard of living! Therefore, they were rather afraid than not, I agree with you!
 
There are some that say, and I tend to agree that the root of all anxiety, phobia, OCD, mental disorders etc. stems from the fear of death. . . Thanatophobia.
It could very well be that because we are so focused on ourselves we have become more afraid of dying then we might have been thousands of years ago.
I agree. it is inextricably linked to reflection
 
It is ironic how the older we get, the more accepting of our inevitable death we become. My own death is still the scariest thing that I can think of, that or even worse one of my children. Maybe for some people the aches and pains of old age, loneliness and despair become too much and death is a relief. . . the finish line.
but then again I know plenty of people in their 80s and 90s that are healthy and vibrant and don’t seem fazed at all about dying.
 
It is ironic how the older we get, the more accepting of our inevitable death we become. My own death is still the scariest thing that I can think of, that or even worse one of my children. Maybe for some people the aches and pains of old age, loneliness and despair become too much and death is a relief. . . the finish line.
but then again I know plenty of people in their 80s and 90s that are healthy and vibrant and don’t seem fazed at all about dying.

Surveys show that older people are generally happier about everything than middle aged people, and that probably includes being less anxious about death.

Before modern times parents might seem to shrug their shoulders even over the death of their own children because it was such an expected routine event. It was a rare family that was spared from some level of infant or child mortality. These days we expect our children to live, we expect to live to 80 ourselves and we now expect governments to be concerned with safety in the workplace, safe travel, etc., so in a sense we are more anxious about avoiding death than we used to be.

However, most animals have an inbuilt fear of life threatening situations, which leads them to try and escape predators, flee forest fires, avoid the edges of cliffs, etc. Fear of death is an evolutionary advantage for all animals, including us.

Humans, though, should surely only fear death if they believe they are going to hell because of their sins. For those who believe they are going to heaven, death should have no sting. That includes most "sinners" who are usually confident that God will forgive their sins, no matter who bad they were.

Atheists should not fear death either, because for them death is "mere oblivion" (as Shakespeare put it). After death there is no pain, no regrets, no anxiety, no awareness of anything past, present or future.

Perhaps wavering agnostics might fear death because maybe hell does exist and they haven't prayed for forgiveness or believed in God. Also, those gullible people who believe in ghosts might fear death as a possible transition to becoming an unhappy, restless spirit for all eternity.

I think many people fear the process of dying more than death itself. It can be painful, and knowing that death is near can be a time for regrets and sadness. On the other hand, many people die peacefully in their sleep at home with no warning, like my grandfather. It was a shock for my grandmother, but she heard him take his last breath and there was no movement, no sign of distress. He simply stopped breathing due to a heart attack. That's the way I'd like to go, and I see no point in worrying about when it will happen, as long as I've made some sensible preparations, such as writing a will.
 
Surveys show that older people are generally happier about everything than middle aged people, and that probably includes being less anxious about death.

Before modern times parents might seem to shrug their shoulders even over the death of their own children because it was such an expected routine event. It was a rare family that was spared from some level of infant or child mortality. These days we expect our children to live, we expect to live to 80 ourselves and we now expect governments to be concerned with safety in the workplace, safe travel, etc., so in a sense we are more anxious about avoiding death than we used to be.

However, most animals have an inbuilt fear of life threatening situations, which leads them to try and escape predators, flee forest fires, avoid the edges of cliffs, etc. Fear of death is an evolutionary advantage for all animals, including us.

Humans, though, should surely only fear death if they believe they are going to hell because of their sins. For those who believe they are going to heaven, death should have no sting. That includes most "sinners" who are usually confident that God will forgive their sins, no matter who bad they were.

Atheists should not fear death either, because for them death is "mere oblivion" (as Shakespeare put it). After death there is no pain, no regrets, no anxiety, no awareness of anything past, present or future.

Perhaps wavering agnostics might fear death because maybe hell does exist and they haven't prayed for forgiveness or believed in God. Also, those gullible people who believe in ghosts might fear death as a possible transition to becoming an unhappy, restless spirit for all eternity.

I think many people fear the process of dying more than death itself. It can be painful, and knowing that death is near can be a time for regrets and sadness. On the other hand, many people die peacefully in their sleep at home with no warning, like my grandfather. It was a shock for my grandmother, but she heard him take his last breath and there was no movement, no sign of distress. He simply stopped breathing due to a heart attack. That's the way I'd like to go, and I see no point in worrying about when it will happen, as long as I've made some sensible preparations, such as writing a will.

That's a very thoughtful response, but I don't see things quite the same way.

Certainly, for people who are in chronic pain, or are very incapacitated, death can be a release. Until that happens, though, many people, even sincere believers in an afterlife strive very hard to stay alive. My mother was like that. She was what we call a daily communicant, and was firmly convinced that there was an afterlife where she was convinced she would eventually meet all her departed loved ones.

When she was diagnosed with a primary brain tumor at 61, she did everything she could to stay alive, undergoing two brain surgeries and the implantation of radioactive seeds in the tumor to try to stave off the inevitable. She was very clear about her reasons: she wasn't ready yet. She and my father had just started to travel extensively, there were no more money worries, and most importantly, she had four grandchildren she adored and she wanted to see them grow up more, especially seeing how many people lived into their 80s and had that opportunity. Most importantly, perhaps, she was worried about how my father would handle her passing; she was right about that, as he died barely nine months after her passing. As he said, he wanted to be with her.

However, after the second surgery she was paralyzed along her entire left side and was bedridden. My father, my aunt and I took turns caring for her, but she became more and more depressed. This wasn't a life she wanted to prolong. No matter how much care my father took of her, making sure she never got a bedsore, reading to her, playing her music, cooking her favorite food, it was just too much. Not even he could make her fight it anymore.

So, I don't think belief in an afterlife means you won't or shouldn't fear death.

Likewise, I guess I'm now a sort of agnostic. Even if there is a God, I don't believe in an afterlife. However, the idea of my personality, my memories, my loves, all disappearing into a void is more terrifying even than spending a couple of decades in limbo would ever be.

I've seen "good" deaths where people "are" ready, and have no fear of the afterlife; my grandparents were like that. They were both in their late 80s, getting infirm, even their grandchildren were mostly all married, and they were just tired, I think. My father had a good death too; he was hoping for it because he firmly believed he'd be reunited with my mother, and she was by far the most important person in the world for him, the one person without whom he couldn't contemplate existence.
 
I am totally reconciled with my eventual death. I am convinced that there is no afterlife, afterlife being a construct of religions to make believers behave in this life by promising them a reward/punishment in the afterlife. I know that for some people it is scary to think of themselves disappearing after their death but it is exactly what happens. I am sure that one's close family will miss them and preserve their memory but eventually their memory will fade. If one wrote scientific articles, then one's articles get quoted and referred but eventually even those will fade. For me, I derive satisfaction from the fact that I lived a good life, hurt nobody and helped a few to improve theirs. I am proud of what my kids have become. I have always wondered about what my life would have been like if certain critical decisions in my life were different.
 
Surveys show that older people are generally happier about everything than middle aged people, and that probably includes being less anxious about death.

Before modern times parents might seem to shrug their shoulders even over the death of their own children because it was such an expected routine event. It was a rare family that was spared from some level of infant or child mortality. These days we expect our children to live, we expect to live to 80 ourselves and we now expect governments to be concerned with safety in the workplace, safe travel, etc., so in a sense we are more anxious about avoiding death than we used to be.

However, most animals have an inbuilt fear of life threatening situations, which leads them to try and escape predators, flee forest fires, avoid the edges of cliffs, etc. Fear of death is an evolutionary advantage for all animals, including us.

Humans, though, should surely only fear death if they believe they are going to hell because of their sins. For those who believe they are going to heaven, death should have no sting. That includes most "sinners" who are usually confident that God will forgive their sins, no matter who bad they were.

Atheists should not fear death either, because for them death is "mere oblivion" (as Shakespeare put it). After death there is no pain, no regrets, no anxiety, no awareness of anything past, present or future.

Perhaps wavering agnostics might fear death because maybe hell does exist and they haven't prayed for forgiveness or believed in God. Also, those gullible people who believe in ghosts might fear death as a possible transition to becoming an unhappy, restless spirit for all eternity.

I think many people fear the process of dying more than death itself. It can be painful, and knowing that death is near can be a time for regrets and sadness. On the other hand, many people die peacefully in their sleep at home with no warning, like my grandfather. It was a shock for my grandmother, but she heard him take his last breath and there was no movement, no sign of distress. He simply stopped breathing due to a heart attack. That's the way I'd like to go, and I see no point in worrying about when it will happen, as long as I've made some sensible preparations, such as writing a will.

Yes, I do believe in an afterlife otherwise, what would point of our existence. Life would be meaningless.

It is the process of dying that scares me. Working in healthcare I see it all of the time, terminally ill patients being offered every type of medical treatment and given false hope. My sister-in-law has metastatic breast cancer that has spread to her liver and lungs. She has three teenage children and just turned 50. She is fighting as hard as she can to beat the odds, but the chemotherapy is really taking a toll and her quality of life is declining. I feel so bad for my niece and nephews. I lost my dad when I was a teenager and not a day goes by when I don’t think about him.
When you are old, I suppose that you grow to accept the inevitable, but isn’t it a kicker . . .you spend years working hard, building a life, for many still mentally sharp with loads of wisdom and experience only to be taken down in one sharp swoop by death.
 
Yes, I do believe in an afterlife otherwise, what would point of our existence. Life would be meaningless.

It is the process of dying that scares me. Working in healthcare I see it all of the time, terminally ill patients being offered every type of medical treatment and given false hope. My sister-in-law has metastatic breast cancer that has spread to her liver and lungs. She has three teenage children and just turned 50. She is fighting as hard as she can to beat the odds, but the chemotherapy is really taking a toll and her quality of life is declining. I feel so bad for my niece and nephews. I lost my dad when I was a teenager and not a day goes by when I don’t think about him.
When you are old, I suppose that you grow to accept the inevitable, but isn’t it a kicker . . .you spend years working hard, building a life, for many still mentally sharp with loads of wisdom and experience only to be taken down in one sharp swoop by death.

I completely understand your point of view. One of the reasons I'm no longer a believer is precisely because I refuse to reconcile myself to the suffering and deaths of innocents. How could a loving God create a universe where something like this can happen to your sister-in-law and her three teenage children. It happened to my best friend when she was even younger, and had to leave behind an eight and a ten year old.

Don't get me started on these experimental drug protocols that they con some people into trying. I've seen too much of that.
 
Based on what little information I can find on the subject, and my own interpretations, I believe humans were less afraid of death thousands of years ago than they are now. I think part of it might have been religion based, the other part was they dealt with death on a regular basis. They were closer to the natural world and understood death better.

What are people more afraid of?
The state of death or the process of dying?
I would guess the latter has consistently remained the same.
I am assuming the state of death may resemble peace to some while others fear agony in hell.
 
I haven't feared hell since I was a child, and even then I didn't hear it for myself, but for my father, because except for weddings, baptisms and funerals he never set foot in a church. Not every Christian is taught the fire and brimstone version of eras past. For Catholics, at least, or so, at least, I was taught, hell is the absence of the presence of God, and we were not to presume to know who was there, given the infinite mercy and understanding of God.

I don't think anything I've done in my life would qualify me for hell even if it's there.

No, what I fear the most is the oblivion, the nothingness, the fact that I will never be with my loved ones again.

I will admit, however, that as someone whose sense of justice is integral to my identity and formed the basis of much of my life's work, the idea that evil, destructive people will never be punished does make me sometimes wish I believed in hell.
 
Even those who believe in a happy afterlife usually still do their best to avoid death, and may fight to stay alive when seriously ill. I think that might be because belief in an afterlife can co-exist with death realism, that is, the knowledge that death is the end of life as you know it. For both the deceased and the bereaved, death represents separation from loved ones. Some might believe in eventual reunification, but in the meantime there is the loss and separation.

Those like me who don't believe in an afterlife might regard death as more of a tragedy for the friends and family left behind than for the one who dies. However, I agree that contemplating the end of all my memories, awareness and feelings is a sad thought, so I would rather live forever than die at any point. Life expectancy has increased greatly over the past couple of centuries, and that trend may accelerate in the future, but not fast enough to change my belief in the inevitability of my own death.

Anticipating death might be sad, but believing that after death I will have no awareness and no regrets is actually a comfort to me.
 
Even those who believe in a happy afterlife usually still do their best to avoid death, and may fight to stay alive when seriously ill. I think that might be because belief in an afterlife can co-exist with death realism, that is, the knowledge that death is the end of life as you know it. For both the deceased and the bereaved, death represents separation from loved ones. Some might believe in eventual reunification, but in the meantime there is the loss and separation.

Those like me who don't believe in an afterlife might regard death as more of a tragedy for the friends and family left behind than for the one who dies. However, I agree that contemplating the end of all my memories, awareness and feelings is a sad thought, so I would rather live forever than die at any point. Life expectancy has increased greatly over the past couple of centuries, and that trend may accelerate in the future, but not fast enough to change my belief in the inevitability of my own death.

Anticipating death might be sad, but believing that after death I will have no awareness and no regrets is actually a comfort to me.

Exactly how I see it except for the last sentence. :)
 
No, what I fear the most is the oblivion, the nothingness, the fact that I will never be with my loved ones again.


Anticipating death might be sad, but believing that after death I will have no awareness and no regrets is actually a comfort to me.

Maybe there will come a point where we are just tired and exhausted and ready to let go.
 
Maybe there will come a point where we are just tired and exhausted and ready to let go.

I think that's very true. I have a lot of great aunts who reached their middle nineties, one grandmother her late eighties, and they were just too tired from forcing their bodies to keep on functioning when so many of their dear ones were already gone.

I've also seen more people than I wish I had seen struggling with pain for long periods of time. Death was a blessed relief.

One thing frightens me even more than a painful death from cancer, and that's any of the neurological diseases where your mind is clear but you're trapped in your immobile body. That, and Alzheimer's. If it were legal, I'd provide that if I have it, and I get to the point where I don't recognize my loved ones or know who I am, they just give me an overdose of heroin.

Some things are worse than death.
 
I completely understand your point of view. One of the reasons I'm no longer a believer is precisely because I refuse to reconcile myself to the suffering and deaths of innocents. How could a loving God create a universe where something like this can happen to your sister-in-law and her three teenage children. It happened to my best friend when she was even younger, and had to leave behind an eight and a ten year old.

Don't get me started on these experimental drug protocols that they con some people into trying. I've seen too much of that.

I’m curious whether your belief in a higher power was something that gradually dissolved or if it disappeared quickly following a tragic event in your life. Personally, while my faith sometimes may waver, so far it has never died.
No doubt going to Catholic school for eight years ingrained itself into my mindset. When events in my life bring sorrow, going to church somehow makes me feel better, strengthens my faith and gives me hope that there is something more then our worldly existence.
Do you think that there is any truth at all to the Bible or is it just some ancient form of fake news?
 
I’m curious whether your belief in a higher power was something that gradually dissolved or if it disappeared quickly following a tragic event in your life. Personally, while my faith sometimes may waver, so far it has never died.
No doubt going to Catholic school for eight years ingrained itself into my mindset. When events in my life bring sorrow, going to church somehow makes me feel better, strengthens my faith and gives me hope that there is something more then our worldly existence.
Do you think that there is any truth at all to the Bible or is it just some ancient form of fake news?

Our true self seeks connection. Why the need for religious interpretation?
The closer you are/get to your true self, the more you are likely to reject religious interpretations of real experiences.
But everyone is different:
Many seem pacified and okay with other people's fabrications.
Others are unable to live someone else's lies.
 
I’m curious whether your belief in a higher power was something that gradually dissolved or if it disappeared quickly following a tragic event in your life. Personally, while my faith sometimes may waver, so far it has never died.
No doubt going to Catholic school for eight years ingrained itself into my mindset. When events in my life bring sorrow, going to church somehow makes me feel better, strengthens my faith and gives me hope that there is something more then our worldly existence.
Do you think that there is any truth at all to the Bible or is it just some ancient form of fake news?

It was a process which started because of my line of work, which forced me to see every day the kind of pain which people can impose on one another, and gradually morphed into a realization that even the perpetrators, although they had to be removed from society for the safety of others, might have been only partially responsible because many had social, and more importantly mental and psychological deficiencies or disorders which might have been an accident of genetics and life experiences.

During one decade of my life that combined with a series of terrible events affecting not only my family, but also close friends and, to some extent, me as well.

I could not reconcile that with the existence of an omnipowerful, omnipresent, and loving God. Now, I recognize that some people accept the idea of a creative godhead but believe that once having created the world "God" left evolution and humanity to their own devices. I find that completely unsatisfying. So was the bromide my priest(s) gave me that it's a mystery and we can't presume to understand it. I eagerly picked up a copy of that bestseller, "Why do good people suffer", to which I would add, why do children suffer through no possible fault of their own, and there were no answers there either.

As I've said before, my sense of justice and fairness is an integral part of my nature. So is a belief in the intellect and power of human understanding, prideful though that may be. It is indeed a cliche, but also profoundly tragic, that the world is not fair. Furthermore, if God didn't want us to understand all of these things why give us an intellect at all?

So, faith comes into conflict with both of my "animating" characteristics, if you will.

I don't know if you've ever read any of Elie Wiesel's work. I don't presume to equate the suffering I've seen at close hand to the suffering people experienced during the Holocaust, or put my intellect on a par with his, but I recognize my feelings in his. He is irretrievably sundered from God even though he profoundly misses Him.
 

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