If death is a natural part of life, why do we not accept it?

Question

My life has been one h**l of a darksome ride. My sister died before I was born, my grandmother died when I was 1, my grandfather when I was 7, two of my aunts when I was 14. I will never see my sibling because of a miscariage that happened just recently. All in all, 15 family members have died...And I'm only 17! Throughout all these years, I have always felt great grief, sorrow, utter depression when someone I love died. I still haven't accepted it.

Animals don't seem to grieve. Humans do. Have always done so. Why? Could it be because man suffered a downfall from perfection, whereby he would have lived forever if he had not sinned against God?

In other words, death isn't a natural part of life? According to the Bible, God will resurrect all those who have died into blissful eternity?

Does this explain why we do not accept death? Please state your opinions on why we humans do not accept this inevitable fate -- death.

Regards

/Daniel

Answer 1

First of all i am really sorry for your loss. Sometime unexpected things just happen that we have to control of.  All these deaths in your family that happened are not your fault.  it just happened.  Death is natural part of life and that's why we don't want to accept it.  We want to live for ever because we don't know what's the purpose to living. But once we do know and accomplished the things that we want in life things just works out it self. As an example, " Your life is the dirty dishes in the kitchen. Your purpose is the clean them before more dishes piles up or you want it to be clean.  When you are done doing the dishes your purpose is finished. You are relived and you can get on the other things that you can do ".  We do have a lot of pain inside of us.  But if you believe in God or super natural power give them you pain. It's like holding 10 grocery bags but giving 5 of them to God.

Answer 2

Animals do grieve, sometimes worse than people. And most people do accept death; they have no choice.

Answer 3

I completely accept that I will die one day and I'm totally ok with it.  I don't dwell on it, I don't contemplate it and I certainly don't dread it.  No matter what you do to counter it you will always end up dead.  Period. The circumstances of my death however concern me.  I don't want to go painfully and slowly, quality is more important than quantity to me.  I want to drop in the traces or die in my sleep.  If I know that my death would be preceded by pain and suffering and possible disability I'll take care of it myself.

Like you, I grieve when friends or family die, I grieve for my loss and the loss of everyone else that knew them, people always die too soon whether they're 5 or 95.  I was dispondent and devastated for days after my lover was killed in Iraq last year.  I still haven't completely stopped tearing up when I think of him, like now.  But he's gone and there isn't anything I can do about it.  He and everyone else I've lost would have wanted me to move on with my life and the same goes for you.

My faith teachs that death should not be a sad experience but is merely a passage to the next step or stage in life.  We should rejoice in the life and time they had with us and be happy for them to have moved on.  Doesn't keep me from calling BS and mourning them and MY loss.  Then there's the celebration part which involves laughter and tears and rememberances and video tape and drinking and food.  There are others that you can share your pain with whether it's friends and family or a councillor.  You are not alone.

And animals do too grieve.  Explain a wild elephant carrying around her calf for weeks after it's died as anything else.

Answer 4

Sorry, but I'm really not sure I understand the point you are trying to clarify!

Who is saying 'we do not accept death' ~ as a part of life?

Given my personal prognosis .....I've not actually been handed a Death Sentence, I term it a 'Life Sentence', but a lot shorter than others of my age might expect.  It could even be that I do NOT GET TO FINISH TYPING THIS LINE, EVEN.

I do accept what I have been told, and except that the lights might go out, and that I might see the light at the end of a tunnel, and that my Buddhist beliefs may bear fruit too.  But if they do not, then I'm not likely to know about it.

Maybe, the need to not accept death in some has to do with the ego, or unfinished business (there are those who ALWAYS have unfinished business).  Maybe it has to do with the fear of the dark and that uncertainty in the inevitability of their darkness.

Maybe.

Sash.

Answer 5

I think we have problems accepting death because we are conditioned to always want our lives to work out (be happy, successful, loved...etc), unfortunately, most people don't have perfect lives. In other words- death is hard for us because we see all the things that still weren't achieved or finally achieved only to be robbed by death.

Answer 6

No one knows what comes after death. Yes, we have our beleifs, but no one knows for sure. It is the uncertainty that leads us to fear the very end of our lives.