Irrlich
My boyfriend is afraid of death, he can't stand seeing a corpse or the thought of death because he worries about the 'soul' that left the body. He was raised as a catholic but has identified as an athiest for years. Because he believes that there is nothing after death he's really afraid of ceasing to exist when he or someone else dies.
I really want him to find some comfort but I don't believe in an afterlife eighter, though death does not scare me. I think there must be some beliefs that could combine a rather 'rational' world view with some comforting spirituality. But I can't see him returning to christianity, or turning to judism or islam. He has a strong aversion to rituals.
Any ideas?
Death is a natural part of life - if anything, a continuation of life. Just short of photosynthesis, something must always die for something else to live.
IT'S THE CIRCLE OF LIIIIIII--
What I'm trying to say is, there's an ebb and flow to everything, and this is no different. Some would say this is part of reincarnation, but even if you don't believe in it... think about this. When you die, your body biodegrades (assuming you die out in nature and are never buried or prepared in some other way, for a bit). Animals, bugs, plants, they all take nutrients from your - nutrients that will keep them alive. This sounds a bit gruesome until you think about it in a different way -
you are becoming a part of those creatures. It reminds me of some of the old Native American traditions, where you eat the heart of the buffalo, or your enemy in battle, and you gain their courage or something. That saying that goes "You are what you eat" - it's true. That chicken, that cow, that salad, it's all a part of you in some way, and you'll be a part of whatever eats you. In a sense, you never really die. You're just transformed.
Hell, think of all the dead skin cells that fall off you and become dust, or all the little bits of your DNA you leave in urine or feces. You're out there!
(Is it still gross? Sorry.)
I'm a little tired, so I might be rambling, but the point I'm trying to get around to is that death is never the end. Life isn't a timeline from birth to death. It's a continual process. Hell, even genetically, you're just another stop on the family tree from your parents to your children. We're not
things, we're events. Swarms of matter that, like a whirlpool, aren't really the water itself, just something the water is doing at that time.
And if you go back far enough in our own genealogy, you eventually notice that we're not just monkeys, or rats, or lizards, or fish, or pond scum. We're
stars. And that's something pretty awesome too, for a completely different rant.
So again... yeah, when you think of the grand scheme of things, death isn't that bad. I mean, the loss of one's awareness is pretty terrifying, but you can lose that with amnesia or Alzheimer's or a coma or good old-fashioned insanity.