Cognitive dissonance.

To elaborate, humans (like all living creatures) have the instinct built into us to survive. The longer we live the more chances we have to procreate and continue our species. So nature has instilled in us a "fear" of death. I doubt we can get rid of this innate feeling completely, but it is possible to reduce it greatly through the use of reason.
This is why even those who believe in an afterlife of paradise still feel negatively about death. They can't help it. It is literally in their DNA.
I'd also point out that the vast majority of (possibly all) people who believe in an afterlife still know deep down that they may be wrong, even if they aren't consciously aware of it.

Cognitive dissonance. — JustSomeGuy

I'm interested in what this points to. Should we walk down the path with the sign ''immortality'' or is it a dead end? The problem is we can't know the difference without trying.

How does DNA encode our thoughts? Why is the process of dying ''uncomfortable''? Pull in reason and it gets complicated. Reason/logic can also be said to be encoded in our DNA but then it informs us that death is a natural part of living and that we should accept it rather than fear it. Paradoxical don't you think?

Nobody wants to die but everybody wants to go to heaven — On a T shirt


A few facts:

1. Religion posits a place called heaven where , it's supposed, we all go after we die. Heaven is a place of happiness, no suffering - a great place everyone should be happy to go to.

2. It doesn't take a lot of effort to see that life has a disproportionate amount of suffering - disease, poverty, crime, etc.

If 1 and 2 are truths then we should be happy to die. We go to heaven and escape worldly pain.

Yet, death invites tears and sorrow instead of what should be laughter and joy.

Comments... — TheMadFool

We've been in this life for a long time. ...so long that it seems as if it were the most natural, normal and ordinary state of affairs (Of course it isn't. The sleep at the end-of-lives is the most natural, normal and ordinary state of affairs).

For that reason, there's a tendency to want this life to go on forever, though we know that it can't.

Additionally, we rightly know that, while here, we'd like to do all that we can, toward various goals, such as being there for others (or at least one other), and various other things we like to do. We're right to not want this life to end unnecessarily soon. We rightly want to make it last for as long as it's worthwhile, because, in this life, there are so many things we like, and want to do. Of course that's in fact why we're in a life in the first place.

Yes, there's nothing wrong with the end of this life; it's nothing to fear. We just, rightly, want to continue it for as long as it remains an opportunity for the things that we like and want to do.

I always point out that if we're in a life for a reason (we are), then, if, at the end of this life that reason remains, then of course, for that same reason, we'll be in another, next, life.

I agree with the ancient Indian philosophers, about our being in a life because of our needs and predispositions. I suggest that your sequence of lives began because of the hypothetical person who was prior to, and the reason, for the start of our sequence of lives. ...and that that sequence of lives will continue until we're "life-completed", when we've perfected our lifestyle, and have no remaining needs. Then comes the end-of-lives, the sleep at the end-of-lives. That will happen only when we're ready for it, when it's the right next thing.

Why expect the end of what we're not done with. How likely does that sound?

Michael Ossipoff

Yet, death invites tears and sorrow instead of what should be laughter and joy.

Comments... — TheMadFool

In their hearts no Christian really believes in a future state beyond death.

Religion posits a place called heaven where , it's supposed, we all go after we die. Heaven is a place of happiness, no suffering - a great place everyone should be happy to go to. — TheMadFool

There’s also a place called hell and rumour has it it’s not very nice.

Granting the religious assumptions of the OP, I think the solution to the paradox is to be found in the immanence of God. Our own horror of death and will to preserve the vehicle of our experience is nothing other than God's will to explore the possibilities of finitude, to struggle and develop in a way that an omnipotent being cannot do.

If you aren't sure about the hereafter, get sure by joining the Church Without Christ, where the lame don't walk, the blind don't see, and the dead stay dead. At the Church Without Christ, there is no doubt, no fear, and definitely no paradoxes. All roads lead to the grave, and that's the end.

Apologies to Flannery O'Connor.

Whether there is an after life or not, the death of somebody I love means I will see them no more, and that is likely to make me sad.

For many people, it is the death of their loved ones that really upsets them, rather than their own death.