"Do you fear death?"

Very quick post here on the fear of death and the lack of an afterlife, etcetera, inspired by my watching the train wreck of a conversation between Thunderf00t and Ray Comfort, where the bananaman asks Thunderf00t the titular question of this post. Thunderf00t answered with a quick "no". If I had to answer yes or no, my answer would be the same, but I don't feel quite right with a solid "no". Not anymore at least.

I definitely think about what would happen to my family after my death, and that could be said to be a fear of sorts. Of course, I take some small comfort in the fact that it would most certainly not be my problem any more, but it is my problem now and it is something I am concerned about.

More than that though, I am a bit afraid of dying, i.e. the process, depending on how it happens. And in fact, this too has also intensified since starting a family. When I was single, if I found myself diagnosed with a painful terminal illness and it was more than I could psychologically bear, I figured I could just do a slow-motion suicide, e.g. substance abuse to death or whatever. Now, of course, I would feel a responsibility to do my best to survive, even if I found myself in a condition where I didn't really want to live. That's what I'm afraid of -- slowly dying, while fighting for my life to extend my time with my wife and son just a little longer.

Death itself? Like I say, once it's over, it ain't my problem anymore.

For a bonus, see below the fold for my favorite part of the Thunderf00t-Comfort debacle...

Bananaman: You can't make an absolute statement that there is no evidence. You'd have to have all knowledge to make a statement like that. You've got to say, "With the limited knowledge I have at present, I don't believe..."

Thunderf00t: Yes... Okay, but if you're going to go down this route, you've achieved nothing. You're into nihilism. You can know nothing. You don't even know that you are here having this conversation.

Bananaman: Oh, you can know the truth. It's all in scripture.

Facepalm! The whole discussion is like this. Thunderf00t patiently entertains Comfort's most inane questions, which sometimes leads to a fairly deep (if rather well-traveled) existential/epistemological discussion, and Comfort even seems to be going along for the ride in his own way... and then WHAM! Comfort trots out the shallow affirmations of a 5-year-old Sunday schooler.

It's almost like two parallel conversations...