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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

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.

10 comments:

Ajaz Haque said...

Enjoy every day it is a gift from God (if there is such a being). Why worry about death, when it comes, it comes. There is nothing we can do about it. Meanwhile have a ball and enjoy life.

Laura said...

I'm not so much worried about my own death as I am those around me and how that would affect me. I'm with you - do what you can to make your life better. That's all you can do. But don't obsess about it either because then you'll spend all your time trying to stave off the inevitable only to find you never really lived.

wstachour said...

I agree with all this, and at 45 & 1/2 I'm in about the same boat as you.

Even the few people around me who might be affected when I die will themselves be gone in short order. I will have come and gone in a fraction of a flash of geological time.

No, the value is in the here and now, in the richness with which we experience the days we have.

From Mark Twain,
"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

JR said...

The only deaths I fear are of the people I love. Although I believe my spirit will live on, though I can't say in what form, I'm also of the frame of mind, if I'm wrong, so what. Like you, I don't tend to worry about inevitable things, only things I have some control over.

CyberKitten said...

AH said: Enjoy every day it is a gift from God (if there is such a being).

I would (of course) dispute that! [laughs] Everyday is an opportunity certainly......

laura said: I'm not so much worried about my own death as I am those around me and how that would affect me.

Having Free Will we can decide how outrageous fortune affects us. There is little we can do to prevent the deaths of loved ones but we can decide how we cope with their loss (or not cope).

laura said: But don't obsess about it either because then you'll spend all your time trying to stave off the inevitable only to find you never really lived.

That's right. If we worry about things over which we have little control the only thing you get is a life of worry.

wunelle said: No, the value is in the here and now, in the richness with which we experience the days we have.

Most definitely. Enjoy it while its still around.

V V said: The only deaths I fear are of the people I love.

Unfortunately its a fact of life that the longer we live the more death we will experience - even in the pampered West. In days gone by death was a constant companion. Today we're lucky in many ways. However, accidents and tragic events still happen. It's how we deal with them that's important.

V V said: Like you, I don't tend to worry about inevitable things, only things I have some control over.

Very sensible. There are many things simply beyond our control. You can soften the impact of fate (by buying insurance for example) but you can't stop things from happening.

dbackdad said...

"... 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" - Hear, hear.

As Richard Dawkins would say, the universe doesn't owe us any meaning. It just is. The meaning of our life is what we choose to make of it.

Anonymous said...

You're very brave.

CyberKitten said...

rodolfo said: You're very brave.

Why? What is there to be afraid of? I think that my attitude is reasonable rather than brave.

Anonymous said...

CK asked: Why? What is there to be afraid of? I think that my attitude is reasonable rather than brave.

I'm not afraid of death or the afterlife. I'm afraid for the people that I leave behind.

CyberKitten said...

rodolfo said: I'm not afraid of death or the afterlife. I'm afraid for the people that I leave behind.

If you mean financially there are many ways to deal with that. If you mean the emotional effects of your death on other people - I'm afraid that there's not much you can do about that. They will have to come to terms with it on their own - though there are organisations that will help (as well as friends and family).