Andrew's Lame Blog
Here is just a random space for me to post all my random thought and anything that may be slightly interesting that goes on in my real life. Don't worry it won't happen too often because I don't really have a life. Otherwise check out my movie blog where I write reviews for movies and do a podcast at http://gmanreviews.com
Jul 1st, 2009 @ 1:01 am
Death is not an evil…
So I’m doing Introduction to Philosophy as one of my last courses at college and I just finished this 1800 word paper on why Death isn’t evil and I thought why not share it with the internets??? Anyways, I hope it isn’t too bad I finished on the very last minute of the deadline and didn’t proof read it too much so here it is.
What is life without death? Without death there will always be a tomorrow. If there is always a tomorrow then what value does today hold? The famous saying “don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today” would never hold, because the statement only remains true if the existence of tomorrow is uncertain. The reason why tomorrow is uncertain is because of the existence of death. Due to the finiteness of life we all feel the need to explore it to the fullest.
It has always been said that people “regret what they haven’t done more than what they have done” and this is because of the need to accomplish something in life. People all say that we are put on this world with a purpose. However, we do not know what this purpose is, so in order to accomplish this task, that we are not sure what it actually is, we must complete as much as we possibly can while still living. It was said by Alan Lakein, a well known author, that “Time is equal to life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life” which holds up the theory that one must do as much as possible so as to make your life more complete.
Epicurus (341 – 270 B.C.) believed that “Death does not affect the living and the dead has never experienced it”. This statement carries many implications and assumptions along with it. If death does not affect the living then death cannot be a part of life. Therefore this makes death something that should no longer threaten life, because once you are no longer among the living you are dead and if you are dead then you will never experience death. If death does not affect us why is it evil? If evil is defined to be morally objectionable behaviour, then how can something that does not affect the living be morally objectionable? Something can only have an objective if and only if it has an effect.
Epicurus says that death does not concern us and the living should not consider it. This allows for people to live without fear. Fear can be a useful tool to help push people into a certain direction, but since we live in a world of uncertainty and no one is sure of their ultimate goal/purpose for being alive it may also be useful to push this fear to a side and allow people to explore all possibilities for their life.
Most people view death in a negative way since it is what happens when life leaves us. Death is something that takes loved ones away from us and removes the possibility of us actually interacting with these people again. David Webb Peoples wrote once, for the 1992 film Unforgiven, “it’s a hell of thing killing a man; you take away what he got and all he’s ever gonna”. This is in reference to a murder that the characters have just committed, and William [Clint Eastwood] is trying to help ease the pain for his partner The Schoefield Kid [Jaimz Woolvett]. This shows us that it is not death that is evil but only the way in which people die. There is natural and unnatural death. When it is natural there is no evil meant, but when it is unnatural that means that someone intentional or unintentionally created this outcome. When the death is unnatural is when morally objectionable behaviour takes place and therefore evil enters the equation.
A lot of religions prescribe to the notion of life after death. As if death is not the end but rather methods to change from one form into another. Some say that we will change into a spirit and go to heaven; some say that we will be reincarnated as other beings.
Hindu’s prescribe to the belief that the soul is immortal. The Bhagavad Gita, an important Hindu scripture, states that ‘Worn-out garments are shed by the body; Worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller within the body. New bodies are donned by the dweller, like garments’ (Verse 2:22). The dweller of the body is the soul, and this theory is saying that just like how we, when alive, will change our clothing when we die we will return in another body as if we have changed out clothing. Therefore, death cannot be evil if it is giving those who are suffering a chance to end this suffering and return to this world with a new set of opportunities to experience what is the wonderful gift that is life. Also for those of us who are not suffering and may have died young and people would say that they were taken too soon. Those who are taken too soon sends their family into distress, however the family can take solace in the fact that their souls have been embedded into the world in a different body somewhere that is being born. Because there is always someone dies and someone being born.
Socrates (469 – 399 B.C.) was a famous Greek philosopher who believed that death was the only way to achieve true wisdom. Plato (428/427 – 348/347 B.C.) said that “the meaning of life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge”. Therefore based on Plato’s notion of the meaning of life and Socrates’ belief that the only way to attain true wisdom – wisdom is defined to be accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment – is to die. This therefore brings to question that the only good in this world is death since it brings us our ultimate goal, which was Aristotle’s belief, of complete knowledge. This brings everything into perspective as Socrates died by taking his own life. Socrates was tried and found guilty in a court in Athens of corrupting the minds of young Athenians. His punishment was death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock. This is important because according to Xenophon’s story Socrates purposely defended himself in the courts defiantly because he believed he was better off dead. Socrates even had the opportunity to bribe the guards to release him and escape but he decided to stay because he was a philosopher and a true philosopher doesn’t fear death. Socrates found no trouble voluntarily ingesting the poison since he believed that he was gaining true knowledge by dying, and also he believed that relieving one’s self of life was the only way to properly ascertain this wisdom.
I believe it is unfair to discuss the reasons why death is a good thing and not mention what life is. Life is many things and many philosophers have attempted over the years to try and figure out the meaning of life. Aristotle said that “Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly, every action and choice of action, is thought to have some good as its object. This is why the good has rightly been defined as the object of all the endeavour. Everything is done with a goal, and that goal is ‘good’”. Aristotle is saying that if something is done in order to attain a goal, that goal attained is an action to attain another goal, and so on so forth. All of these actions and goals are all created for the ultimate goal that is good which is something along the lines of happiness and excellence. If nothing else can be said about explaining why anyone does anything, it can be said that it always done with a purpose involved. If someone performs an action it is to attain a specific result/outcome. This outcome is something that will bring some level of joy to the user and therefore bring them closer to ultimate happiness, therefore proving Aristotle’s theory of the Highest Good. So therefore if one’s living your life to attain the highest good then one shall live a life of rich rewards.
The meaning of life has been discussed by everyone. No one has ever found the true answer, or if they have no one has been able to prove that their answer is correct. Some people believe that everyone’s life has a specific purpose and each life has a distinct purpose to it. However I’d like to believe that the meaning of life can be understood from these two quotes: John Lennon said that “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans” and Terry Gilliam said that in reference to the meaning of life “Well, it’s nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations”. Personally I think that life is something that you should just live and enjoy. As one of the greatest 80s film characters ever made, created by John Hughes, Ferris Bueller who says “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” which is another interpretation of what John Lennon said, except it assumes that you will miss it by getting too involved in your plans.
Most people live life believing that there is something after it. However, let us imagine that for argument’s sake that there is no afterlife. That when you die, in the literal sense, that you will no longer exist. This therefore means that like you have one life to live. Therefore making the time you spend in this plane of existence more important than before. You will want to accomplish all you can before you will cease to exist. However, what do you have to gain if there is an afterlife? If there is an afterlife then you will gain another chance at being another being, whether spirit or physical. Therefore just like Blaise Pascal’s theory on the existence of God and whether or not you should believe he exists, you have nothing to lose from living a full life and only everything to gain if it turns out that there is life after death.
I therefore continue with the belief that death is not evil and all opposing ideal that have been made, and mentioned above, have not been convincing enough to sway my beliefs. If death was an evil God would not have made the world so that it was a necessary part of life. It is known that everything God created is good, and since God created life and made it so that it’s finite then death in itself must be a good thing.
