# What is your death philosophy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502 "2008-10-05T00:42:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/1 "2008-10-05T00:42:40Z")
Mine is fairly simple. I’ll be dead. So I won’t be alive to experience it. One must be alive to function and be an observer of things. I believe life is mostly suffering and death is the end of suffering. I am evolutionarily incapable of contemplating the idea of “what does being dead feel like”. One who is dead cannot feel. One who is alive cannot contemplate the concept of a temporary existence. That doesn’t mean to say that one who is alive is not subject to a temporary existence. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/2 "2008-10-05T01:18:02Z")
Same as my life philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/3 "2008-10-05T01:18:29Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > One who is alive cannot contemplate the concept of a temporary existence. Wouldn’t that make it impossible to contemplate the question “what is your death philosophy?” ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/4 "2008-10-05T01:35:41Z")
I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of life. I’d love to stick around as long as I’m healthy and able to take care of myself, but I’m pretty much good to go. My only fear is a long lingering death. If I’m diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or if one of those pesky melanoma cells makes it past my epidermis, I have contingency plans. ---
**Author:** ![Debon\_Err](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@Debon\_Err](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debon_Err)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/5 "2008-10-05T01:42:01Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Wouldn’t that make it impossible to contemplate the question “what is your death philosophy?” Not to an immortal. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgonzola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e480ec/32.png) [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/6 "2008-10-05T02:53:22Z")
I believe in the Epicurean notion that death = absence of sensation and hence not something to dread in itself. Certainly an untimely death can inconvenience one’s survivors to varying degrees and should be avoided wherever possible. Life and its sensations can be quite pleasant, but when that goes awry, well, there’s the dreadful. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/7 "2008-10-05T04:58:19Z")
When I am dead I won’t have to worry about how stupid an idea this is (referring to whatever situation it is that kills me). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/8 "2008-10-05T05:04:10Z")
What did Woody Allen say? “I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens” Pretty much sums it up for me. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/9 "2008-10-05T05:07:26Z")
You’re going to be dead most of you life, have some fun before you go. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/10 "2008-10-05T05:37:48Z")
I’m with the “when you’re dead, you’re dead” crowd, but I do fear dying without having accomplished something that will leave a little bit of me behind when I’m gone. I mean, besides the bloody streak behind the bus that’s going to hit me. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/11 "2008-10-05T06:04:23Z")
I share the philosophy of the 19th century German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, as he expressed in his essay “On The Sufferings of the World” > [@Arthur Schopenhauer](#): > > If you try to imagine, as nearly as you can, what an amount of misery, > pain and suffering of every kind the sun shines upon in its course, > you will admit that it would be much better if, on the earth as little > as on the moon, the sun were able to call forth the phenomena of life; > and if, here as there, the surface were still in a crystalline state. > > Again, you may look upon life as an unprofitable episode, disturbing > the blessed calm of non-existence. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/12 "2008-10-05T09:59:19Z")
I will never die. I cannot die. I’ve been around forever and I’m probably one of those unkillable immortals. I plan to be reincarnated as a sea otter, or maybe a large cockroach. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/13 "2008-10-05T10:12:47Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I’ll be dead. So I won’t be alive to experience it. One must be alive to function and be an observer of things. Yep, this is me. > [@](#): > > I believe life is mostly suffering and death is the end of suffering. This is not. Life is pretty great, all things considered. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/14 "2008-10-05T10:42:23Z")
It’s over. I’ll be dead. Hopefully I’ll have done everything that I want; it would be OK to be still alive and have nothing I want to do. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/15 "2008-10-05T11:06:44Z")
I believe that this life is only temporary, and that after I leave it, I’ll ascend to a higher plane of existence. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/16 "2008-10-05T11:11:19Z")
Fuck death. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/17 "2008-10-05T13:42:16Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > Fuck death. Amusing juxtaposition between your fuck-it attitude and your [sig](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timor_mortis_conturbat_me), dude. 🙂 I’m with Wolverine on this: it’ll happen to me one day whether I want it to or not. ---
**Author:** ![Purgatory\_Creek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/18 "2008-10-06T02:37:46Z")
I like general anesthesia because I absolutely cease to exist while I’m under. I figure that’s what death is like. I’m cool with it. There are a hell of a lot of worse things than not existing, and I’ve experienced enough of them that death will not be unwelcome. In the meantime, I’m glad to have Earth to live on. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/19 "2008-10-06T02:46:56Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > I will never die. I cannot die. I’ve been around forever and I’m probably one of those unkillable immortals. So I’m not the only one… Do we have to try to decapitate each other now? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502/20 "2008-10-06T02:47:11Z")
I want to come back as a kitty cat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-death-philosophy/466502.md?page=2)