Should we stop seeing death as a negative thing, and are we responsbile for what life gives us?
This might be a sensitive topic to someone, who has been or is dealing with death.
Before I say anything, let´s just assume we have free will.
When we learn to make decisions and learn to know of the consequences of our decisions, we are generally responsible for those consequences, except when the consequence is another person´s choice (if that person is sane and intelligent enough to be deemed morally responsible). Example: If a thug with a gun asks me for my wallet and I say no, and he shoots me, it is not my fault, because he made the choice.
But if we make a certain decision that will result in certain natural consequences, we are responsible for these ourselves. An easy-to-understand example of this could be if I am the thug and I shoot someone. But another example could also be, if I do an extreme sport and get injured or die, because the stunt I am doing is dangerous. In this case, I may not have chosen to die, but I still chose to do something with a high probability of injury/death. In this situation I am believed to be responsible, since I may not have wanted to get hurt, but I chose to take the risk.
The thing is, this goes for any natural disaster that could happen in my life? If I get cancer as a 40 year old, it may not be something that I have chosen, but as I grew up and started learning about life´s possibilities, I knew that this was a risk that I was running, simply by living.
This is a general thing in life. Any day that I walk out of my door, I know that I can die in an accident of any kind. I still go out of the door. I could also die in my house, I still live there. No matter what could happen to me, I always know that it is a possibility. And fact is, if I do not want this to happen, I can just kill myself. Easier said than done, but I could mentally train myself to become able to do it, if I chose so.
This makes me think, that the whole idea of death being a bad thing, is an illusion. I understand that if someone murders me (,which is not an accident, but a choice), it is different. But if anything natural happens, like if I get cancer or I lose a loved one, in most of these cases, all of this was a choice, that we made ourselves by choosing to be part of this world.
It also makes me think that life is generally a gift: not something we earned, but something we were given. And most of us always have the chance to throw that gift away, if we don´t want to deal with the risks that we are running by living life.
I do believe there are exceptions, like if a child gets cancer: Why?
Because I will find it sad that the child will be in pain, because something like a child does not have the free will of an adult to kill itself. It can´t stop the pain.
But I do not find it sad that the child is going to die. Because death is neither good or bad, it is neutral, since you don´t feel anything (I assume). EMOTIONALLY, I may find it sad, and so will the parents. But the thing is: these parents chose to feel that way.
When they chose to have a child, they chose to run the risk of losing it to a natural desease (or some other kind of natural death). They chose to deal with life. And in reality, they shouldn´t be sad that they lost their child, they should be happy that they had the oppotunity to have it in the first place. Of course, that is not the case in the real world, they will probably be hurt for the rest of their lives. But they chose for that to happen and they keep choosing it everyday by staying alive.
Is there an argument against this?
Before I say anything, let´s just assume we have free will.
When we learn to make decisions and learn to know of the consequences of our decisions, we are generally responsible for those consequences, except when the consequence is another person´s choice (if that person is sane and intelligent enough to be deemed morally responsible). Example: If a thug with a gun asks me for my wallet and I say no, and he shoots me, it is not my fault, because he made the choice.
But if we make a certain decision that will result in certain natural consequences, we are responsible for these ourselves. An easy-to-understand example of this could be if I am the thug and I shoot someone. But another example could also be, if I do an extreme sport and get injured or die, because the stunt I am doing is dangerous. In this case, I may not have chosen to die, but I still chose to do something with a high probability of injury/death. In this situation I am believed to be responsible, since I may not have wanted to get hurt, but I chose to take the risk.
The thing is, this goes for any natural disaster that could happen in my life? If I get cancer as a 40 year old, it may not be something that I have chosen, but as I grew up and started learning about life´s possibilities, I knew that this was a risk that I was running, simply by living.
This is a general thing in life. Any day that I walk out of my door, I know that I can die in an accident of any kind. I still go out of the door. I could also die in my house, I still live there. No matter what could happen to me, I always know that it is a possibility. And fact is, if I do not want this to happen, I can just kill myself. Easier said than done, but I could mentally train myself to become able to do it, if I chose so.
This makes me think, that the whole idea of death being a bad thing, is an illusion. I understand that if someone murders me (,which is not an accident, but a choice), it is different. But if anything natural happens, like if I get cancer or I lose a loved one, in most of these cases, all of this was a choice, that we made ourselves by choosing to be part of this world.
It also makes me think that life is generally a gift: not something we earned, but something we were given. And most of us always have the chance to throw that gift away, if we don´t want to deal with the risks that we are running by living life.
I do believe there are exceptions, like if a child gets cancer: Why?
Because I will find it sad that the child will be in pain, because something like a child does not have the free will of an adult to kill itself. It can´t stop the pain.
But I do not find it sad that the child is going to die. Because death is neither good or bad, it is neutral, since you don´t feel anything (I assume). EMOTIONALLY, I may find it sad, and so will the parents. But the thing is: these parents chose to feel that way.
When they chose to have a child, they chose to run the risk of losing it to a natural desease (or some other kind of natural death). They chose to deal with life. And in reality, they shouldn´t be sad that they lost their child, they should be happy that they had the oppotunity to have it in the first place. Of course, that is not the case in the real world, they will probably be hurt for the rest of their lives. But they chose for that to happen and they keep choosing it everyday by staying alive.
Is there an argument against this?
Comments (5)
There's no "should" with feelings.
And the reason why they have the feelings they do, is because they still have an idea that death is a bad thing. If they were used to the idea of life being a temporary gift, they wouldn´t have those feelings (at least when they had gotten used to the idea).
Feelings are not the product of reasoning. Your point of view might help you cope with a loss, but you will not be treated kindly if you approach an aggrieved parent and inform them they are wrong.