How do you cope with death?

[Lavi]

I never feared death even when I was an atheist. I never saw the world as definite beginnings or endings, so death seemed like just the next big adventure where we jumped into the unknown to learn new fascinated shiz. Confronted as a kid by death, I just looked at the dead body and said to myself, "That isn't a person. It never was." (Er- this was a relative, but I am trying to make it general)

Yeah, you're going to die. So what? Humans spend their entire life fearing the unknown. When you stop, you feel more alive then you ever had. I don't mean indifference or ignoring it. Truly, not fearing the unknown. If there is one excellent thing religion can bring people, it is a lack of fear of death (well, it is something it CAN bring people, not to say people always get that from their religions).

As for an a priori proof, if we had one, didn't you think we'd all think there was an afterlife by now? I do not know nearly enough philosophy to deal with it.

 

[elementsoul]

BREAKING NEWS: Death is a part of life. Suck it up. The terms of being alive are that you die in the end. Clawing at a chance to avoiding that clause in the contract is a pathetic thing for anyone to do. If you don't want your existence to go unnoticed in history you have to make the small list of names that will never be forgotten due to the importance of their actions. The way you are acting you will never be on that list and if you die in five minutes or die at the age of 80 it won't matter because in the history books your name will be in the same place as mine, not in them.

 

[El Poncho]

By not giving a shit.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

By just dealing with it I guess. I've lost someone very dear to me years ago, and I just recently had to deal with the passing of one of the family's pet cats, so...

 

[binvjoh]

No one really close to me has died yet, so I don't really know how I'd cope with it.

Though I am rather optimistic when it comes to questions of mortality. I have, unless something unexpected happends, a lot of time left and I can't be bothered worrying about something so far away.

The though of my parents dying scares me though.

 

[iLikeHippos]

Well, would you cherish beauty if there was no ugliness?
Would you cherish love if there were no hate?
Would you cherish happiness if there were no sadness?
And firmly, would you cherish life without death?

As a matter of fact, death is more sense-able than life itself. But, you are here, and that's all that matters for now.

Better make the best of it.

PS: Don't get deluded by theories. No man, no matter his arguments, will be 100% sure of everything out there. They're just humans, after all.

PSS: I felt that same pain for a month straight. That thought went through my mind like a loop. I couldn't eat, sleep, think or do anything right at all. I was crushed, 24/7.

But, before I say this line, I am NOT A CHRISTIAN!...
I prayed to God in my tears. I thought I didn't want to know. I didn't want to know why, where and if anything of it. I just wanted that nagging, evil despair away.

After I finished my pitiful prayer... It was gone for some reason. And it still is. I don't know for sure what to believe, but what ever got that thing away... It wasn't something I had control of for certain.

But, yeah, you'll learn to cope with it once you feel yourself at peace. I've got all my tranquility and answers I need.

PSS...S...: I do freerunning. Guess how many times I've done something dareful and slipped off handrails or other slippery objects?

When I fall a good distance, there's always a thought that rises through my head. It's "I don't want to die! I've just begun this!" and my will to live increases tenfold.

Stop sitting at your computer, living a harmless and deprecating life.
Like I said, how can you appreciate life without the chance of death?

 

[GenericAmerican]

I am going to quote a my friend Kyle. "I think people only die because they accept death as an inevitability." And that man will never die..he can't, he is too awesome to die.

But my viewpoint is, "we all have to die at some point" So it doesn't really bother me.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I only think about death once in a very great while. Last time was last Friday in music class. My mind kinda randomly wandered to the topic of what happens to us when we die.

That was the most recent. I don't remember the time prior to that when I thought about death, but it would've had to have been sometime in 2005 (my grandma died in 2005).

 

[Grumbles92]

Jesus Christ! No reason to take your short-comings out on me. Not my problem you wasted your life.

 

[GonzoFish]

Grumbles. You are articulating something I deal with myself from time to time. When I graduated from university last spring I went into a massivef two-week long funk. I thought about the inevitability of death, the superfluousness of existence, the existential horror of no longer existing and how second by send my life was slowly eking away from me. Wasn't a fun 2 weeks.

I can't really give you advice for accepting death, because I sure haven't. But eventually the period of obsessing will pass and you'll be able to put it out of your mind again like you did before.

One thing I have noticed though since that awful two weeks I've noticed that I've become the kind of person who now like to "smell the roses" so to speak. Things i would have never noticed or bothered with before I now take time to stop and enjoy. Ever let a perfectly green grasshopper walk along your arm? Or sit on a beach during an a summer rainstorm and watch the cloud formations over the ocean? Or sit a meter away from a deer and watch it eat your lawn? Or swim in a lake under a full moon?

There's so much seemingly mundane but amazing experiences in life that were passing you by while you were too busy trying to get to the future. Now that you realize how precious your own existence is, stop and take the time to take it all in while you can. Its worth it.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Um... It's not something I think about all that much. Not that I'm trying to avoid the subject, it's just never been something I've fixated on. Not much of a future person, because I'm having fun in the present.
As for how to deal with it - enjoy the time you have, and stop using it all worrying about what's going to happen next.

 

[elementsoul]

Jesus Christ! No reason to take your short-comings out on me. Not my problem you wasted your life.

You really need to start quoting people so we can tell who you are talking to.

 

[UBERfionn]

Why fear death?
Death is something that we all must do in our lives. It's as common and everyday as breathing is.
But still people fear death.
The unknown is more frightening than anything else.
So many questions asked, all about one thing.
All we are all we do can be boiled down to death and the afterlife.
If this distresses you I can't help you.
Only you can help you.

However I will tell you how I cope.
If there is truly nothing after death what difference will it make to me?
I'll already be dead.

 

[movienut]

Jesus Christ! No reason to take your short-comings out on me. Not my problem you wasted your life.

You really need to start quoting people so we can tell who you are talking to.

Could he be fighting with himself? He is a little angsty?

(Just kidding oh banning gods! Don't smite me!!!!!!!)

 

[bak00777]

cope with my death or others.

mine: thats silly i will never die.

others: well for my Grandfather, it didnt hit me until a week or so after burying him. Now around the time that he passed away i will crave the type of potatoe chips and ginger ale he kept in his house. I guess thats just my way to celebrate his life and remember him.

 

[Grumbles92]

Jesus Christ! No reason to take your short-comings out on me. Not my problem you wasted your life.

You really need to start quoting people so we can tell who you are talking to.

I was talking to you.

 

[elementsoul]

Jesus Christ! No reason to take your short-comings out on me. Not my problem you wasted your life.

You really need to start quoting people so we can tell who you are talking to.

I was talking to you.

Then that makes this easy. I see no problems with my short comings so I'm not taking them out on anybody as there's no reason to. Personally I except death, I don't strive to cling on to life, I decided to live a life that won't be remembered let alone be remembered for anything important, and I want to be lost to history.

I could rip into your first post if you want, but unless you request it I have better things to do than point out all your short comings from that single post.

 

[Grumbles92]

Jesus Christ! No reason to take your short-comings out on me. Not my problem you wasted your life.

You really need to start quoting people so we can tell who you are talking to.

I was talking to you.

Then that makes this easy. I see no problems with my short comings so I'm not taking them out on anybody as there's no reason to. Personally I except death, I don't strive to cling on to life, I decided to live a life that won't be remembered let alone be remembered for anything important, and I want to be lost to history.

I could rip into your first post if you want, but unless you request it I have better things to do than point out all your short comings from that single post.

It's completely up to you. I don't care to hear anything from a bitter lemon-head who's easily angered.

 

[Vitagen]

I have no intention of dying . . .

 

[astrav1]

I'm assuming you have read the works of Sartre.