What is Death?

I pose the question to anyone who will answer, what is death?
I am conflicted and have came to possible thoughts.
1. Death is the end, your memories and consciousness degrades and reverts to its most basic form of shemical, mostly protein and is used by plants and rejoins the lifecycle.
2. Your "soul" is reborn in to another living being ans many things go in cycles, rain, life etc. perhaps consciousness is in a cycle.

I have come to the sad conclusion that it is the former rather than the latter, so what are your thoughts?

[ghoulslime]

Your Fire

Where did your fire go -
That last candescent glow
Of light, of life, of thought,
That once burned so hot?
That final spark of divinity
Lifting in a wisp to infinity!

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Yours is arguably the most pertinent question ever raised by humankind. Sadly, your conclusion is incisively truthful.

Hey, I can quote poetry, too!

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
-The Bard of Avon, Macbeth (V, v, 19)

[ghoulslime]

ocmpoma wrote

Hey, I can quote poetry, too!

Yepster, you sure can! - like an idiot, full of sound and fury!

I prefer quintessence of dust, an't please you.

We rot 6 feet underground when we die. Take it like a man! It's not "sad" at all. It's natural! Fearing death is for people who need eternal life to feel good about it. I don't need eternal life, because I don't fear death. Dying might hurt, but death won't.

I disagree. We generally sit underground for years, slowly turning into dust, before the various preservatives we pump into our corpses degrades enough for the insects et al to survive.

There's a reason I want to be cremated, and have my ashes spread somewhere with very few humans. Don't keep my remains in a jar, or stuff 'em in a box. I'm not using them anymore; something else might as well.

[Tenspace]

If religion didn't have such an influence on disposal, we'd probably be ashed and used for paving roads or something. ;)


Ten

[ghoulslime]

Tenspace wrote

If religion didn't have such an influence on disposal, we'd probably be ashed and used for paving roads or something. ;)


Ten

Wendy's chili...?

[ghoulslime]

Lucretius wrote

We rot 6 feet underground when we die. Take it like a man! It's not "sad" at all. It's natural! Fearing death is for people who need eternal life to feel good about it. I don't need eternal life, because I don't fear death. Dying might hurt, but death won't.

Take it like a man, my ass! I've been where the bullets fly and the metal meets the meat. I put up a good "big brave guy" act, but I'm scared shitless. I'd rather not be the man in the box. Eternal life for me, man! I'm kicking and screaming and wailing like a little bitch! Old man death will dull his blade before he gets me. Religion's lies are no comfort for the honest, but that doesn't make eternal oblivion less frightening. Gulp.

ghoulslime wrote

Take it like a man, my ass! I've been where the bullets fly and the metal meets the meat. I put up a good "big brave guy" act, but I'm scared shitless. I'd rather not be the man in the box. Eternal life for me, man! I'm kicking and screaming and wailing like a little bitch! Old man death will dull his blade before he gets me. Religion's lies are no comfort for the honest, but that doesn't make eternal oblivion less frightening. Gulp.

I'm right with you there, but our consolation is that we'll never know we're dead. It won't feel bad because we won't feel anything because we won't exist. Death is only horrifying in life (nice contradiction, huh?).

HeWhoAsks wrote

Death is only horrifying in life (nice contradiction, huh?).

Nice quote and how true it is. I fear the death of others close to me much more then my own.

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
-- Epicurus

[PanAtheist]

God, my arse wrote

Your "soul" is reborn in to another living being

(as a possible thought)

Well, we'll have to examine the soul's birth canal to rule this out!

ghoulslime wrote

Take it like a man, my ass! I've been where the bullets fly and the metal meets the meat. I put up a good "big brave guy" act, but I'm scared shitless. I'd rather not be the man in the box. Eternal life for me, man! I'm kicking and screaming and wailing like a little bitch! Old man death will dull his blade before he gets me. Religion's lies are no comfort for the honest, but that doesn't make eternal oblivion less frightening. Gulp.

oh I am not saying that I fear it. I am just saying that it is sad that this is it nothing more, just go through life and die... wooh?

God, his arse wrote

What is death?

Death is the irreversible cessation of the functioning of the vital processes of an organism.