The other day in class, I had to defend this very blog and a very interesting question was asked to me. Why are people so interested in death? I had no clue. So over the past few days I have been doing a lot of research to try my best to answer this very question (that is why I am writing this first blog on Wednesday rather than my usual Tuesday). I learned that our fascination with death is innate. Plain and simple. Evidence of this extends all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians which mummified their bodies out of the respect for death itself. People, even today, still worship death. Those in Mexico and a select few other Central American countries celebrate a day remembering the dead, “The Day of the Dead.”
Humans and the fascination with death have coincided hand in hand throughout history, from the Greeks and their god/goddesses to popularity of séances in the early 20th century. It is just within us, as humans, to be curious about what is after life. This instinctive lure contributes to the popularity of “End of Days” myths as a whole.
Death is such a powerful subject that it has its own phobia, thantophobia. This power also contributes to the aura that such prophecies, like 2012, emit. Death’s obviously powerful hold on certain people along with our innate curiosity with it, allow for myths that combine these two factors to become very strong and very sensitive. This is the best concise answer that I can give to, Why are people so interested in death?
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html
http://www.phobias-help.com/phobia_fear_of_death.html
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I would have to agree that individuals are concerned with death because it is unknowable. It is an innate human characteristic to be curious and find the answers to the unknown but death and especially after-life cannot be known. In order to satisfy their curiosity myths and "End of Days" conspiracies must be created. I am curious to hear where you will lie in believing these conspiracies?
ReplyDeletePeople are fascinated with death because they are afraid of it. Like you said, there is even a name for fear of death. People are afraid of things that they don't know about. Uncertainty is intangible and people want someway to grab a hold of uncertainty. However, this is very difficult. What if you knew the date and time of your death? Would you be more afraid or satisfied with the knowledge?
ReplyDelete"People are fascinated with death because they are afraid of it." I disagree with you right there. I am fascinated about death not because I'm afraid of it. I ponder often that if I die now I won't mind and I would think it would make me happy. I am not suicidal though, I love life, it's just that if I die and if the world died too it'd be better as no one like in this world be hurt, raped, abused etc. but then what would I know about what happens after death. That's the point here, death fascinates me, what'll happen next, nothing and not because I'm afraid of it.
Deleteoh yea...another interesting thought to ponder:
ReplyDeletepeople are afraid of death, but what about in situations such as suicides and bombings? The fear of death seems to be overridden...
I think that people are so fascinated with death because 1) we do not understand it completely 2) we know that it is inevitable. We cannot ask someone “Hey how was death for you, was it a good experience?” Therefore, we have no idea what to expect. Like I mentioned before the only thing we truly know is that it is inevitable. Since people know that it is inevitable, but do not know why that could cause some odd obsession over it.
ReplyDeletepeople interested
ReplyDelete