i often wonder why people are so afraid of dying. i mean, theres no way around it, why fear it all your life? i'd also love to know where we go when we die. any opinions on the subject?

People are afraid of dying because our genes have installed a survival mechanism in us. Even Ameobas freak out in front of eminent death. (Plus, death is usually painful and gruesome. The pain of my death actually scares me more than the knowledge I will die someday)
It's actually more surprising that some people can NOT be afraid of death- that shows a mindful mastery over our most basic instinct.
And I don't think we "go" anywhere when we die. No heaven or Hell, just nothing. Exactly like what you were before you were born- our mind just can't wrap itself around the concept of not existing- like the concept of infinty.

bah.............well, you're half-right

oddly enough it seems it's only in american culture that death is something made out to be sinister and scary...

i'm not afraid of death, i'm afraid of losing my life...there's just so much i enjoy about it...i've been accused of being cold because i don't cry at funerals, or whe my grandmother died...my mom couldn't understand when i tried to explain that it's what my grandmother wanted...she found her peace, why cry...i hear they celebrate funerals in ireland...i'd like someone to use my death as a reason to celebrate the life i lived...i've never understood the depressed approach to someone's passing.

if something dies, it was meant to die...there's no escaping death, look at all the interest in prolonging life, and what a mess the world is in...nature dies...it's against her grand plan to make things live beyond their use.

as for the afterlife, that is up to the person living it...it's too hard to say "i told you so" after you're dead...

Ha! That's true. I go by the "hope for the best but expect the worse" kind of philosophy. That way I'm always pleasently surprised.
What about those "near-death" experiences? What I don't get is they always seem to go to heaven and never to hell- and common sense tells me that MOST people shuld be going to Hell.

well, that would depend on the view a person holds of heaven and hell, versus a spiritual existance after death...it seems i read a scientific explanation to do with near death experiences...something about the mind being the last to go...i don't remember.

Yes I think brain activity goes on quite a while (minutes) after the heart stops. In the 19th century people tried experiments on guillotined convicts to see if instant death did occur when the head was cut off. There was no conclusive evidence, but on one occasion, after being slapped hard, the eyes of one of the convicts opened and looked intently the scientist. Creeeepy.

Ants heads can live for ages after they've been cut off...I wonder if they're thinking of ant heaven whilst trying to carry on walking with their antenni(sp?)

People just die...their thoughts and feeling can live on..unless they never interact with another human being their entire life..

so what's the reverse? when the brain dies and the heart goes on (thanks to medical measures?)

your brain is still actively conscious for about 9 seconds after the head's been caught off........itz all a matter of oxygen and blood.....even so, you'll pass out, but are still alive for however long...............and your brain, even when connected, is still active for about 5 minutes after you die.......and when you "die" you're not actually dead.......cells and shit continue to live.............as for the after life, it exists.....fuck the ideas pertaining to heaven, hell, limbo, and all the supernatural nonsense......in truth a) your body decomposes returning to earth, yaddah yaddah yaddah; b) energy cannot be destroyed; c) i don't care what anyone says, denying the existence of the "metaphysical" is fucking retarded, and as such, the "metaphysical" does not pertain to physical laws and hence is best understood as having an afterlife..........

What do you mean by 'the metaphysical'? And what does energy have to do with it? If you're saying that we are conscious and alive because of the energy in our bodies then you would have to say that everything is alive, because everything contains energy.

bravo!..........ok, not to get too in depth.........everything has what is known as the "essence"......this aspect of "existence" is a "metaphysical" one.....metaphysical: not physical, but real.....like dreams, thoughts, unicorns, god, the essence..........anyway, as such, in this aspect you live (even after your physical body dies)......doesn't necessarily mean "you" live....but you don't justly just vanish into a void of nothingness..........now, as for considering everything as alive, it is true that everything has an essence, but according to Aquinas, it is unjustified that a rocks essence is anywhere near the greatness of a human essence.......as such, humans with the highest degree of the metaphysical, could possibly experience an afterlife (heaven, forever, infinity, whatever)......

I think the reason why people would fear death. Is because for one thing they don't know when they are going to die. They also don't know what kind of a pain they will happen to recieve from it. But death is a horrible thing. As far as where we go when we die. I have no clue. I think we just die and don't go anywhere. Life is nothing but a hudge mistery.

the third time i died i was in the emergency room. they had a tube down my throat to provide oxygen. they gave me some drug to keep me from moving during the mri thing, i was conscious, but just lying there. then the tube stopped feeding in oxygen, and i couldn't let them know, but i felt myself getting fainter, then i heard "we're not getting any air over here" then "we don't have a pulse", i remember the sound and feeling of the 10 broken ribs grating as they started cpr, and wishing very hard that they didn't have to get out the shock paddles, then nothing until i woke up in ICU later. as soon as they gave me something to write with i wrote out that story for my mom who was there, the nurse said "you shouldn't remember that, you were dead"

no lights, no tunnels, no astral projection or heavenly visitation, just pain and darkness

ymmv

to me, there is no such thing as hell or heaven... i believe that when we die, we feel the way we feel when we are sound asleep; we cant feel anything, cant hear cant see
but i do believe in reincarnation... tat the energy of our souls get renewed in our next lives.. which is why we can feel and think abt our current lives and the times we are born in but yet have no inkling of our lives b4 5 years old. i cant rem how i was when i was toddler

Well energy is physical. It exists in a very different way to the way that unicorns exist, so the fact that it cannot be destroyed is neither here nor there with regards to the continued existence of non-physical things.

Also, I not sure that your use of the word 'metaphysical' is very helpful. Metaphysics is so called because it came after physics in Aristotle's works. It's about existence, truth and knowledge, including physical existence as well as the existence of unicorns.

yes.......however, the metaphysical is as i described.....if itz not, then i should have failed damn near every course i;ve taken......anyway, the metaphysical is simply the "essence" of the individual......science tries to proclaim energy as said essence......proof? from science, the big bang theory: there is a time known as Plahk(spelling?) time......its the "time" between the big bang and the evolution of actual material........all that existed during this time was energy (as well as matter and anti-matter eventually)...........hence, energy is not physical, as it does not apply to physical laws (such as dying).........its science's view of the soul....philosophies view is the essence

I disagree. 'Physical' does not just mean matter, it means matter and energy. In fact, matter is energy in a different form (e=mc2). If a soul exists as something non-physical there is no reason to suppose it is connected to the energy within our bodies. Also, our personalities are connected to physical things - if you remove parts of someone's brain, or give them drugs, their personalities and way of thinking change.

If consciousness is connected to the energy in our bodies, then you have to ask why it is that it is attached to our bodies when there is continuum of energy running from the atoms in our brains to those in the rest of our body, to our clothes and to the outside world. We also take in and let out energy all the time.

ok, i can agree.....but my argument is that energy and matter and antimatter all coexisted before the physical universe and time as we know it.........as for consciousness attached to the body, go read some descartes and expand on his philosophical concept of substantial dualism......