Are you afraid of death? If not why?

Question

Are you afraid of death? If not why?
Can we avoid the usual supernatural stuff here please, ie JesusGodAllah etc. as I think that is all a bit subjective.

Answer

Of course. We all fear the unknown to some extent thats part of what it means to be human, and it is part of the survival mechanism that made humans such extraordinary survivors. We cant imagine what it would be like to not be, or to not wake up after sleep, so we imagine all kinds of afterlife that we could exist in. Im as scared as anyone of not being, but Im even more scared of people who believe absolutely that they know theres an afterlife and would have no problems with killing me because they are right!

Are we selfish?

Question

Are we selfish?
I was wondering about this. We all do things because of the satisfaction or reward we get. For example we give to charity which gives US a form of satisfaction from helping others we work because we want money to buy nice things. A mother loves her child and will do anything for that child because of the satisfaction the love gives to her the mother.

Answer

Would even asking class as SelfGratification ?brBut of course you are right, was only musing over this last night. It being my birthday I figured it would be nice to give something rather than receive, only to finally figure after feeling particularly proud of myself, that the act in itself could easilly be seen as satisfying myself.brI guess the flipside to all actions is a nagging sense of self.

Are we all wrong ?

Question

Are we all wrong ?
Are people made wrong? In design we age and our bodies are weak and the minds that control them are just as weak and unpredictable, this is not a good design.

Answer

I would imagine that if your goal was to design something that would have the best chance of lasting, such as the survival of the human race, then you would want something that could adapt to the changes we might encounter in our world. As our DNA quotblueprintquot is past down through the generations, there is a great potential for modification and an increase in efficiency as necessitated by those environmental vagaries.brbrIt is best to think of yourself as as Honda SUV, which is actually not a bad car! But to meet the problem of dwindling resources our survival as a car species depends on our offspring being more hybridish. And of course, none of this would be very helpful if we stuck around to compete for those resources. brbrUnfortunately, there is only a limited amount of room on our highways. Do we really want to foul things up with a bunch of old gas guzzlers?brbrOf course, it would then not be surprising to wonder if we could ever create such a perfect design that there would be no need for the potential for adaptation. In other words, could we design something that could meet all future contingencies?brbrMany people feel that the evolutionary process will only successfully end, when we have obtained some Godlike status. Of course, these same people are also running around saying that anything that doesnt kill them, makes them stronger, so I wouldnt take it on face value.brbrMy guess is that we will be able to stop evolving much sooner perhaps when we have obtained the status of those monsters from the Alien movies.