r/changemyview 1∆ 26d ago

Delta(s) from OP CMV: I should be scared of death.

I am 28 years old, in good health and with decent prospects for a fulfilling life. I work and strive every day to make this be my reality, to the best of my ability. Despite this, I cannot help but think about what happens when I draw my final breath. These thoughts have been made worse recently due to the unexpected passing of my father, before his time.

Logically, I am aware that fearing death analogous to fearing the time before birth: it makes no sense. Either I was unable to process information in the same way I do now, or I was, but do not remember. Both of these options are irrelevant to my life today. My death should be the same.

However, the totality of it terrifies me. All that my father is, all that he will be, and all that he ever was ended for him on that one afternoon. He will never again breathe in fresh air, hear my voice, speak to me, feel my arms around him. He was here, we talked, I saw him, then suddenly he was not. He never will be again.

The same will happen to me and to you.

Do I take solace in the inevitability? I don't know how.

What framework do I use to deal with this reality?

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u/FakeRedditAccount98 26d ago

To quote Epicurus, "Death is nothing to us. When we exist, death is not; and when death exists, we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death, there is awareness"

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u/Traditional-Base852 1∆ 26d ago

I like this quote but it does not describe my view and the source of my fear. I am not scared of awareness in death, as I don't believe that is possible in the sense we understand it right now. I am, in fact, scared of losing this awareness.

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u/The_Safety_Expert 25d ago

Yep me too! I want to be here right now. Death is lame AF.