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Is death negative?

Started by Contemporary Protestant, February 22, 2015, 04:24:47 PM

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Aletheia

Death is neutral. The life that precedes it is what carries the label of "good" or "bad." When this life transitions to death, we refer to that transition as good or bad, depending on how we labeled life. The state of being dead receives no real label or much attention at all. The finality of death is understood to be unchanging and is the inevitable conclusion of all life.
Quote from: Jakenessif you believe in the supernatural, you do not understand modern science. Period.

Contemporary Protestant


GSOgymrat

So if I killed you it would be a neutral thing.

Good to know.

I consider death a negative. I consider a person's life to have inherent value and when someone dies something unique is lost from the world never to be replaced. A birth is a positive, the person adds to the world and human experience, and death is a negative because the world literally loses something that cannot be replaced.

stromboli

Quote from: GSOgymrat on February 23, 2015, 07:30:04 AM
So if I killed you it would be a neutral thing.

Good to know.

I consider death a negative. I consider a person's life to have inherent value and when someone dies something unique is lost from the world never to be replaced. A birth is a positive, the person adds to the world and human experience, and death is a negative because the world literally loses something that cannot be replaced.

In the long term, perhaps. But in a situation like my sister who has outlived one of her children and whose other child is a vegetable unable to even attend her funeral, not so bad. The last time I met her when she was lucid she told me that she would rather be with the loved ones beyond than a burden to people in this life. She was constantly in pain and constantly on meds- this a woman who in her life was very capable and useful, reduced to being nothing but useless in her own eyes.

I am a very active 65 year old man who cares for a woman with physical needs. She occasionally tells me she is sorry to be such a burden, though in truth she isn't. But we both have discussed what we would do in life ending situations. I for one refuse to be a burden to anyone. Should I outlive my wife, I would take my own life rather than be a burden on society or my children. 

SNP1

Quote from: Contemporary Protestant on February 22, 2015, 11:31:34 PM
positive is uplifting/good, and neutral may as well be nothing

what are you getting at? this isn't a debate, its a question

I am personally indifferent to the idea of no afterlife because i will probably know what that is like, because if there is no afterlife, I can't process it because I don't exist anymore

I know it is a question, but you still need clearly defined terms. If you do not have clearly defined terms, then your question means absolutely nothing.

The point I am trying to get at is that what is "good" and "bad" is all relative and opinionated. There are no real goods or bads, only relative ones.
"My only agenda, if one can call it that, is the pursuit of truth" ~AoSS

Solitary

Death doesn't exist accept for the living, just like it was before you were born. I see it as problematic because I am alive and have the will and desire to live, and when that is gone, I will be gone also in any form. Is that a negative, or positive? After what I've been through in life, I think it is more positive than negative being alive, but after life it is nothing. Even people in German prison camps fought for their lives as long as they didn't loose the will to live. I think it is easy to die, and very hard to live because we are aware of being mortal and will put up with almost anything to stay alive. In the movie Genghis Cahn he is about to rape a woman and she says she would rather die---He gives her his sword.  :eek:  They were happily married after. Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

trdsf

No, death is natural.  If it wasn't for death, there could be no evolution.  While there's generally no need to hasten it, there's no need to fear it either.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Unbeliever

Quote from: Contemporary Protestant on February 22, 2015, 04:24:47 PM
Is death a bad thing? I have mourned the loss of friends, family, and mentors. But is death negative.

The premise being death is ceasing to exist; silence, peace, the end, or whatever you want to call it.
If death is oblivion, as I think it is, then it's the default state, and this life is just a very brief interlude in that ongoing oblivion. It's neither good nor bad, it just is.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Gawdzilla Sama

You were dead for over 13 billion years. Then you lived. You'll be dead a lot longer than that. Enjoy what you have while you have it, it's a miracle you're here at all.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SGOS

No, no.  In my 70 or 80 years of life, I have become so important that it is only natural that I would live on.  This is why humans, unlike animals, are given souls.  We are that important to the universe.  OK, OK, I'll admit that there doesn't seem to be any evidence for my existence before I was born, but once I was conceived, I became a holy thing that would live forever in Heaven, but only if I accepted Jesus as my savior.  Or else I would go to Hell.  It has to be the way it is.  There can be no other explanation.

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: SGOS on March 14, 2015, 07:42:46 AM
No, no.  In my 70 or 80 years of life, I have become so important that it is only natural that I would live on.  This is why humans, unlike animals, are given souls.  We are that important to the universe.  OK, OK, I'll admit that there doesn't seem to be any evidence for my existence before I was born, but once I was conceived, I became a holy thing that would live forever in Heaven, but only if I accepted Jesus as my savior.  Or else I would go to Hell.  It has to be the way it is.  There can be no other explanation.
So, you are the soul reason the universe exists?
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SGOS

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on March 14, 2015, 07:53:52 AM
So, you are the soul reason the universe exists?
Yes, why else would I exist?  OK, granted, the universe did just fine without me before I was born, but I don't really know that existed before then.  All I have are books on history and geology.  But now that I'm here, everything changes, doesn't it?  I've become a part of a greater plan, and without me, what would be the point of a plan?

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: SGOS on March 14, 2015, 08:37:24 AM
Yes, why else would I exist?  OK, granted, the universe did just fine without me before I was born, but I don't really know that existed before then.  All I have are books on history and geology.  But now that I'm here, everything changes, doesn't it?  I've become a part of a greater plan, and without me, what would be the point of a plan?
I would agree that you are the reason for your personal universe. And we can extrapolate from there that ending you will end the universe that is important to you. However, I just keep the last scene from "Men In Black" in mind.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SGOS

I haven't watched MIB for such a long time, but I vaguely remember a shot of the memory flasher going off.  Was that the last scene?
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on March 14, 2015, 07:53:52 AM
So, you are the soul reason the universe exists?

Oh, shit.  It took me having to read this post twice, but I finally got it.  Duh.

Aupmanyav

#29
Quote from: Contemporary Protestant on February 22, 2015, 04:24:47 PMThe premise being death is ceasing to exist; silence, peace, the end, or whatever you want to call it.
It is not all that, SGOS, that is coating it with sugar. It is non-existence, dissolution, extinction. We should be brave enough to accept as things are. I am also in my 70s.
"Brahma Satyam Jagan-mithya" (Brahman is the truth, the observed is an illusion)
"Sarve Khalu Idam Brahma" (All this here is Brahman)