Episode D3 - Fear of dying

An exploration on whether we should fear the process of dying itself.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• fear
• dying
• naturalism

[trilobites4truth]

Well, you did a great job on this... To bad that it has been votebotted... Humanity should lisen to messages like this!

[rozeboosje]

Thank you

[dashbyan]

I really am enjoying this series. The music you picked, and the scenes work together so well. Thanks, this must have been a lot of work, but they turned out excellent.

[rozeboosje]

thanks

[rozeboosje]

Oh yeah. I know a lot of folks like that.

[shas1814]

Oh, backsliders are the backbone of the church :=)

A backslider is a Christian whose willful actions

are contrary to church doctrine.

A man who firmly believed divorce and remarriage to be sin,

yet who has left his wife and married another.

The Bible is quite scathing and threatening toward such folk

and they tend to expect bitter retribution after death.

I've had gentle men confide fearfully to me

that they are "living in sin"

because they have been lovingly remarried for thirty years.

[rozeboosje]

Exactly. We ARE going to die, and there is no denying that.

I am, of course, trying to find a measure of solace in the fact. Realising that death is nothing to fear, that an eternal existence would be horrific, etc, etc. But there is also the undeniable fact that many of us die long before they feel ready for that, and there is genuine fear to be felt for what you leave behind, how those you love are going to cope and so on. Denying that would be stupid.

[rozeboosje]

Again, I'm not surprised about the "nominal Christians". What's a "backslider", though?

[shas1814]

I'd like to say a couple things more- (If you want me to say less, just let me know) 1- I've been terminally ill for some time and have had two "NDEs". If these can reliably be extrapolated to the experience of dying, I found it to be very strange, a bit apprehensive (like starting, say, a roller coaster ride), physically unpleasant, and a bit exciting. 2- Dying people want, need, and deserve the chance to TALK about it. Chirpy, determinedly cheerful negation is damned frustrating.

[shas1814]

That's a thoughtful and thought-provoking question.

I wish I could give you a good answer.

I just cannot think of enough people in that situation

that I've had experience with.

Unfortunately, it was not until I retired

that I became an atheist myself;

I'm afraid I would not have been

sensitive to that situation at the time.

I can say that "nominal Christians" and "backsliders"

were almost unanimously terrified of dying.