Is death part of the point of life?

[AutumnRose1]

Just wondering if anyone thinks this

Or if any religions have any comment on it. Thanks.

This thread reminds me of this extract from East Coker by T.S. Eliot.

In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.

Cattenberg that’s beautiful, thank you.

I think I was concerned how people would interpret this thread when I started it so didn’t say it clearly.

Here’s a great quote from Rust Cohle - a fictional character yes - but it’s spot on.

I think human consciousness, is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself, we are creatures that should not exist by natural law.

We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self; an accretion of sensory, experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody is nobody. Maybe the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

Oh ok, you're talking about death of the self, of the ego? Have I understood you correctly? Or from the second paragraph of that quote perhaps you are talking about human death at the end of life and that we should end human life in this generation?

That’s a thought-provoking quote, AutumnRose1. Should we still exist and reproduce ourselves, knowing our (presumably unique) predicament?

I am non religious so this is it for me. In that context I believe that what gives our lives meaning is knowing that it ends. That is our impetuous. A finite period that we choose what to do with. Personally I am fundamentally Epicurean.

No, I’m not talking about death of the self

I think I’m uncomfortable with there being no point so perhaps the relief of death is the point?

Catten yes, I’m childfree. The world has to end sometime surely?

Pushmepullyou

Yes, I think I need to stop being so humanitarian and head for Epicureanism!

my brother died recently. He had a very strong faith and someone described it like this..... as a Christian, life on earth is like a dream and at the point of dying you actually wake up. I love that and it helped me cope with his loss.