What do we fear the most?

Question

Death is controversial in this way ==>We can have for sure that we will die; however, despite a suicide instinct... we don't know when. So death provides us something that is for sure and something that is unknow at the same time...

So the question is:
What do we fear the most?
Knowing that we will die or not knowing when and how?

Notice the: "the most"

Between those two options you funny

Answer 1

fear itself

Answer 2

I don't fear death, or being taken by surprise, I'm a little afraid of the painful process and the mysterious question: What next? Is there another life? Will we lose our memory? Or will it be The End and we won't even exist in a conscious sense.

I think the thing that scares me most is having to account for the choices I made in my life.

A survey was taken (last year I think) of what people fear most and surprisingly death wasn't top of the list! I remember that spiders were further up, but I think the thing that topped the list was a disfiguring injury.

Answer 3

I don't fear death because I know I will be going to a better place. I do hope I will be blessed with a quick death and not have a long painful death. I don't want my family to go through the pain of watching me suffer.

Answer 4

Nothingness. It's also called nihilphobia. Nietzche called it the abyss. It's difficult to stare at it and not be afraid. We tend to fill it with religion, with faith, with hope....
That's why most Churches refuse to accept the notion of a total void. In fact, the Cathlic Church in the Middle Ages condemned with heavy sanctions anyone who dared to speak about "the nothing". When the first scientist discoved he could form a complete void within a tube, the Church had a fit!

Answer 5

That which we fear is that which we don't understand.

But the reverse isn't always true. (i.e. if we don't understand something we fear it). E.g. I don't understand how Joe Pasquale does that voice without a kick in the balls, but I'm not scared of it.

Answer 6

I reckon it's a slowwwwww death.

I don't mind dying so long as it's quick! I'd rather it happened before the brain & bowels went too, but not before I've lived a little - but then again, wouldn't we all?!!

Answer 7

Not knowing when and how, but i try not to worry too much about it because there is nothing i can do about it anyway. Although Ive got to say i have a genuine phobia of Monks.

Answer 8

For me, it used to be "pain". But now it's "wrongness without a reason". I mean, there are some occasions when one cannot help hurting another being (like, a father telling his daughter his wife is dead). But senseless waste of resources (like, in war), including human life, terrifies me.

Answer 9

It's not the threat of death or illness that I fear... the thought that nobody understands or cares about you is harder to accept.

Answer 10

many are not afraid to die or even afraid of when to die or how to die !! they are more afraid of what's next after death !! it's the judgment day that makes people tremble with fear !!

Answer 11

What I fear is the possibilty,no matter how remote,of reincarnation.The thought of returning to this f***ed-up world is horrifying.non-existence is far more preferable.No,I'm not depressed,just realistic.