Why is it that some people are afraid of dying, and others aren’t? I don’t think that anybody is really unafraid of death, I just think that some people deal with it better than others. It is said that death is the second biggest fear of people, with only public speaking a bigger fear. Ironically people would rather die than give a speech in public, but no matter who you are, death scares you a little bit. Who wouldn’t be a little afraid of the unknown, and never existing again?
For those who are accepting of death, it could be that a faith of the afterlife is what keeps them going. These people aren’t really going to die, rather they are going to be with God, or with loved ones when they die. Death is just the end of this life, and that they will continue to live on long after this body has stopped going.
Those who aren’t afraid of death may be living a very hard life. For those people, death would be a great thing, because it would ease them of the burdens of this life. The peaceful sleep of death is not the way they envisioned being relieved of these burdens, but it is better than living this life.
Those who are afraid of death may feel like they haven’t done all they wanted too in this life. Perhaps they feel like they have missed chances to do things, and have wasted the one shot they have in life. Perhaps they don’t believe in an afterlife, or worse they feel as if they are going to a lake of fire for all eternity, and can’t atone for their perceived sins.
Some may be afraid of death simply because it is an unknown feeling. Nobody really knows how death feels, and if it is something that we just go into easily. Does it hurt to die? Does it take a long time, or do we just die peacefully? I can’t imagine that evolution would allow the human body to suffer if it didn’t have too, and so I would imagine that death would be pain free. However, until we go through it, how do we know what it feels like?
Death is a scary thing, and I think it is scary because of the fact that it is the end of the road for us. Do we get to go to Heaven and be with God? Or do we just get to rot in a piece of dirt for the rest of eternity. It can be kind of scary to know that one day our entire existence could be forgotten about. Your kids might mourn you if you die of old age, but what happens when they go too? What if an asteroid hit the Earth, and your grave was destroyed?
I am personally not scared of dying, and it may be because I am still only 24. However, I would be sad if I didn’t leave a legacy, or at least something for people to remember me by. That may be the scariest thing yet, that we don’t live on through anything other than what people remember us doing, and then to be forgotten anyway.
