If it wasn't for religious threats of hell and horror stories/movies, do you think death would be less feared by people?

[Ambivalent1]

?

 

[Darkover]

no people would still fear the unknowable of what come after death maybe locked anyway somewhere for all eternity in a black box or rebirth

 

[tary]

Yes. But I also think humans have an instinctive tendency to assume the worst about unknown things, such as being afraid of the dark, because it means you'll be more careful and so more likely to survive/do well.
This definitely contributes to why people believe in a hell and why they came up with the idea in the first place.

 

[Seven Threads]

I don't think so. Death is pretty existentially terrifying for a lot of different reasons, most of which have nothing to do with religious beliefs or horror stories about death and dying.

And really, this makes sense. Remaining alive is a biological imperative that has evolved alongside our (and most other) species. There's a reason that even people who desperately want to ctb struggle to do so. Our survival instinct is powerful, and will almost always induce dread and terror when confronted with the imminent reality of non-existence.

For my part, I consider myself spiritual/non-religious, and I don't tend to gravitate towards horror stories about death and dying. Yet the idea is still existentially terrifying to me. I'm not suicidal; never have been, and hopefully never will be. I'm one of those users who tries to empathize with people who are, but I very much wish to be alive and to continue to do so. That said, I know that I will die eventually, and I regularly contend with this dread of death not because I wish to act on it, but in the hope that when it is time for me to go, I may be able to do so with some grace. I'd hate to think of my last moments being spent in dread of it.

 

[leavingsoon99]

Possibly. Religion thrived on both ignorance and restriction from reading. This is evident in the colonization of peoples around the world. As Christianity spread, a reprogramming took place that made other people as ignorant as those in Europe who were already being made so in order for feudalism to work. Because if you read books like "Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth" and "Devastation of the Indies", you'll find that native peoples had a much different concept of death. They did not fear it. In fact, some ways of escaping the cruelty of the Christians was to commit suicide. Suicide wasn't seen bad by many societies, including Greece and Rome.

Rome persecuted Christians. When Rome fell (the political Roman Empire), the church made most of the things Rome either valued or was indifferent to a "sin". It is the imposition of fear and superstition by the church that engrained the idea of "hell" and "heaven" in order to make people submit to the domination of religion, thereby controlling them and molding their morality through that fear and ignorance.

 

[Kasumi]

I'd say the religious threats of hell etc stem from the natural fear of death, not the other way around.
I remember when I was little, I used to be afraid of just not waking up again the next day.

 

[FuneralCry]

I feel like many humans will always fear death as after all this existence is all that they know and they cannot comprehend what it's like to not exist, for them death represents the unknown and they would rather avoid death and focus on their meaningless and empty existence, they try to attach meaning to this futile process of slowly dying but there will always be none. We are just a tragic consequence of evolution after all.

But I could never fear death itself as I believe that we just cease existing, I only fear this nightmarish world where there is endless potential for suffering, I see not existing as being something beautuful as one cannot be harmed by nothingness and there are no disadvantages to not existing so it shouldn't be feared, it's our fate to die, death is the only relief in this repulsive world.

 

[Ambivalent1]

no people would still fear the unknowable of what come after death maybe locked anyway somewhere for all eternity in a black box or rebirth

Black box that's scary

I feel like many humans will always fear death as after all this existence is all that they know and they cannot comprehend what it's like to not exist, for them death represents the unknown and they would rather avoid death and focus on their meaningless and empty existence, they try to attach meaning to this futile process of slowly dying but there will always be none. We are just a tragic consequence of evolution after all.

But I could never fear death itself as I believe that we just cease existing, I only fear this nightmarish world where there is endless potential for suffering, I see not existing as being something beautuful as one cannot be harmed by nothingness and there are no disadvantages to not existing so it shouldn't be feared, it's our fate to die, death is the only relief in this repulsive world.

I saw a quote once from ancient times that said something like "Happy is he who goes quickly to the grave without ever seeing the sun."

 

[charlotte_]

Possibly yes. People wouldn't see death as being something as hellish. But to be honest, I think people never really had any reasons to fear death. They just are. Inherently, we all have an instinct, or a "will" to live that drives us to do all these tasks to survive - respitoring, digesting, reproducing ect, yet none was able to explain why we just keep continue living. People put all kinds of reasons for it, but realistically we live just because we are. Same thing goes for death. We living creatures all fear the unknown, at some point. It's a tragedy that our nature is driven to suffer.

 

[ringo99]

No people wouldn't fear it any less. Humans are hard wired with survival instincts to fight against death as long as possible even those who are suicidal. The concepts of the afterlife, resurrection, heaven and hell are human inventions to allay the common greatest fear of all human beings regardless of social standing, race, religion or economic class: Oblivion

This is the truth that your actions have no consequences beyond your current plane of existence. Once you're gone every trace of your presence outside of your corpse will be wiped forever. There is no soul to be punished or rewarded in the same way that a battery's power simply stops existing once it's used up. All that's left are the consequences of your actions on this earth towards the people you have interacted with.

 

[scamper]

I think death would be less feared by some people, but with it being something humans can't observe, a huge amount of people would still be afraid of it for that reason.

 

[Goodgirlryeo101]

Oh there is no such thing as hell after death - it's nothingness after death ( my opinion) ….

 

[Kerock]

no because all humans are ingrained with survival instinct, fight or flight responses, all because are body is programmed to fear death. On top of fear of the unkown

 

[Ambivalent1]

I think death would be less feared by some people, but with it being something humans can't observe, a huge amount of people would still be afraid of it for that reason.

If it wasn't for hell, I would've easily killed myself as a teenager. I really liked the idea then of subverting the expectations people had of me that I would be one of the rare few who could overcome child trauma and be wildly successful.

 

[ultrasharpy123456]

probably. if these fears weren't here i probably wouldn't be here rn,