Is Death a fact of life or a belief?

[r0ckyreed]

This question basically states it. Is death something that we know to be true or is it a belief that we imagine? Notice that you have never experienced death as a reality for yourself, so how can we know that death is a reality if we have never experienced it first hand? If we have not experienced something in our direct experience, then it is a belief. Knowledge can only be derived through experience, and yet death is not an experience. In my contemplation, I went so far as to question why I assume that I will die. I find my assumption based off of the experience I’ve had with others dying and through a collection of beliefs. But how do I know that I will die based off of the experiences in my environment? Why make such a generalization? The “fact” that “everyone dies” seems to me like a belief because do we really have an experience of everyone dying? Is it possible that there may be some humans who have never died (like the immortal Jellyfish)?? Please let  your thoughts. I know it sounds stupid, but can we know death to be a reality without a firsthand experience of it?  I read The Book of Not Knowing and still struggle with the idea that death is a reality through the method of knowledge displaced by Peter Ralston. Thank you!

Edited February 3, 2020 by r0ckyreed

[AnTe]

death is a fact of existence but not exactly how we imagine it. we think it's the end because we are experiencing it from a creation perspective rather than creator perspective. from the creator perspective it's actually constant cycles of death and rebirth which is infinite. the best example of this is reflecting on how much our perspectives changed from childhood to adulthood, through experience. maturing is essentially a part of us dying only for another part to be born because the old version is no longer useful to our experience. 

[Gili Trawangan]

What are you talking about when you say 'I'? 

[MAYA EL]

Death is a choice just like ageing and unfortunately the majority belief will always be the reality as a whole and as a whole the world believes in ageing and dieing. 

[Spaceofawareness]

There are two possibilities, 

a) whatever “you” are, might continue, though where and in what way is uncertain, though, it won’t really matter to anyone else, it seems to everyone else, once you die “you” are gone,

b) when you die, there is nothing, no you, no experience, no looking down on everyone else still alive, not even darkness, not even nothingness in the way that we know, essentially, from your perspective the universe will cease to be.

beyond this, there can be many kinds of speculation, theories of the afterlife, etc, but nothing can possibly be confirmed.