Thinking About: Death.

Next month I’m 48. This means that statistically I’ll be dead in 30 years time. It’s a sobering thought. As I slowly get older I can’t help being reminded of my mortality by the greying of my hair and the aching in my bones. But need I be melancholy about my impending demise? Not really. After all it’s not like I can do anything about it. Sure I can do things which I will hope extend my lifespan – like not smoking – but eventually I will shuffle off this mortal coil no matter what I do.

Am I depressed by the idea of death and ceasing to exist? Again, not really. I mean what would be the point? It’s like being angry for getting wet during a rain storm – there’s no logic in that response to a perfectly natural and expected event. Of course given the opportunity I’d happily take a pill that would extend my life by 100 or even 1000 years. I’m sure that some people wouldn’t but I would. Even living centuries would leave things undone but it would be nice having the time to do some more of them. This doesn’t mean that I’m ever likely to run around like a headless chicken filling my every waking hour with new experiences knowing that after death all possibilities end. That’s too exhausting even to think about. There will never be enough time to do everything and if that is your aim then you will always be disappointed.

Being an atheist I have no expectation of any kind of ‘afterlife’ and this singular fact worries me not at all. Why should it? I’ll be dead. As I am effectively the electrical impulses in my brain when they are gone so am I. Nothing survives death because there is nothing to survive death. Why should that bother me? Most people pass through their lives completely anonymously. They leave little or no trace that they have ever existed except on their immediate friends and family. I have no fear that I will be forgotten because I fully expect to be forgotten within a few decades (or less) of my demise. I do not expect that I will be even a minor character in the history of my country or my world. I will die and be forgotten as most people are.

Don’t get me wrong though. I am not looking forward to dying and intend to put off that inevitable event for as long as possible. Life is just too interesting to leave although I think that the right to commit suicide or (if incapable) assisted suicide should always be maintained. Life isn’t just about quantity but very much about quality too.

Death is inevitable. We should recognise that. Once we accept that we are all going to die and ditch the idea of either reward or punishment in any kind of afterlife we might spend more time and effort making this planet a better place to live – both for ourselves and for future generations. If we didn’t look forward to a better world to come in Heaven or some such place then maybe, just maybe, we’d have a better world here and now. Death… Where is your dominion? In our imaginations that’s where.