Do humans take death far too seriously?

[cookiemonster]

Life is seemingly a paradoxical blend between the will to survive, and the understanding that death is an illusion.

Animals seem to understand this instinctively. Play to win, yes, but do not take it so seriously when you lose (or lose your loved ones).

Humans on the other hand seem to be missing this second part. Death to a human is seemingly a catastrophe. A malfunction even. It is as if humans are missing the ontological instinct that understands that it's all just a game.

Do we humans take death far too seriously?

[Batman]

Well, we sure take life seriously.

Animals don't have the learning capacities that humans posses. They are acting their the instinctual drives rather simply.

Humans on the other hand has complex web of beliefs regarding their existence, that is built around the instinctual drive to survive and procreate. This cause distortion in perception and different feelings towards existence. The success of modern culture is built upon putting life on a pedestal and constructing an illusion regarding the importance and meaning of the human experience.

[JosephKnecht]

@cookiemonster 

@Batman

How can anyone take anything seriously when the CookieMonster is arguing with Batman about the seriousness of life and death?  

[Inliytened1]

1 hour ago, cookiemonster said:

Life is seemingly a paradoxical blend between the will to survive, and the understanding that death is an illusion.

Animals seem to understand this instinctively. Play to win, yes, but do not take it so seriously when you lose (or lose your loved ones).

Humans on the other hand seem to be missing this second part. Death to a human is seemingly a catastrophe. A malfunction even. It is as if humans are missing the ontological instinct that understands that it's all just a game.

Do we humans take death far too seriously?

We have the ability to reason and justify our survival where animals simply survive.  We imagine reasons for our survival.  We also develop deep attachments as a result of that reasoning- which makes it all the more challenging.

[WelcometoReality]

52 minutes ago, JosephKnecht said:

@cookiemonster 

@Batman

How can anyone take anything seriously when the CookieMonster is arguing with Batman about the seriousness of life and death?  

??

@cookiemonster Humans have the capability to imagine there own death without even being close to death. Wow the suffering that can be created by that is immense. 

[cookiemonster]

1 hour ago, JosephKnecht said:

 

How can anyone take anything seriously when the CookieMonster is arguing with Batman about the seriousness of life and death?  

LOL

"There must be some kind of way out of here, said the Joker to the thief. Too much confusion, I can't get no relief." - Hendrix

 

2 hours ago, Batman said:

Animals don't have the learning capacities that humans posses. They are acting their the instinctual drives rather simply.

 

That's true, but the skills that animals posses instinctively are extraordinary.

For example, the moment Blue Tit chicks hatch, they instinctively know not to 'poop' in the nest. They quite literally wait until the mother or father returns to the nest with food, so that the poop can be removed by the parent. This happens within moments of the eggs hatching, and so isn't something that is taught. Humans on the other hand literally have to be be potty-trained else everything turns messy.

If animals can have sophisticated instincts in the realm of socio-industry, can it not also be the case that they can have sophisticated instincts in the realm of philosophy and ontology?

That is to say, even though animals have limited scope for learning and introspection, are they perhaps fundamentally (instinctively) connected to God in a way that for humans requires each generation to have an education and/or rediscovery?

[cookiemonster]

1 hour ago, Inliytened1 said:

We have the ability to reason and justify our survival where animals simply survive.  We imagine reasons for our survival.  We also develop deep attachments as a result of that reasoning- which makes it all the more challenging.

 

1 hour ago, WelcometoReality said:

Humans have the capability to imagine there own death without even being close to death. Wow the suffering that can be created by that is immense. 

 

So true.

[cookiemonster]

@Inliytened1 @Batman @WelcometoReality

To use computer lingo, one way to visualize the difference between humans and animals might be analogous to RAM (Random Access Memory) and ROM (Read Only Memory):-

Animals as 90% ROM and 10% RAM.

Humans as 90% RAM and 10% ROM.

For this reason animals appear to have in-built sophisticated comprehensions of reality without having much space for learning. Humans on the other hand are born pretty stupidly, but have enormous scope for learning which can be passed down orally/manually through subsequent generations.

If humans happen to lose the ontological wisdom of God, then such wisdom is potentially lost quasi-permanently through all subsequent generations until a chance encounter or random re-discovery rekindles the wisdom back into our collective culture.

Potentially, this isn't the case with animals, who because of their ontological instincts (codified in ROM) always are aware of the ultimate nature of God, and therefore don't take death so seriously when it happens to occur.

For example, birds may spend all year building complicated nests and spend large amounts of energy bringing up their chicks. But the moment one of their chicks randomly dies, the parents simply dispose of the body as if it was meaningless.

Just like a video-game. Play to win, but don't sweat it when you lose.