Non-Existent

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein*

If you think about it, death doesn’t actually exist as far as we are concerned. Either you’re alive or you’re not. If you’re not alive you don’t have anything to worry about because you’re not exactly going to get any deader. It doesn’t make sense to be afraid of death, just in the same way that it doesn’t make sense to dislike the taste of water: it’s just nothingness.

I don’t think I understand the fear of death. Dying, however, is a whole different coffin of fish. I should imagine I’d be pretty petrified if I was about to be run over by a bus, particularly if I didn't have clean underwear on (not that this happens, but you never know, people would check! I would!).

I’m not saying I'm not fussed about dying, in fact one a scale of one to inconvenient it would be pretty arseing inconvenient. I’m just saying that being dead isn’t something that worries me. The process of going from alive to dead is something which worries me, particularly if this process is painful, but I probably worry about it as frequently as I worry about, say, global warming. However, these are both things which when it comes to it, I'm sure my grandchildren will worry about far more than me.

Unless they're druggies.


*There was actually a better quote but I couldn't remember who said it. I'll have to ask Fergus when he gets back.