Since death is inevitable, why should people care about life?

Answer 1

Your assertion is based on the following assumptions:
1. Death is bad
2. Certainty of something "undesirable" happening in future makes the present meaningless

Let us discuss the question from two extreme standpoints-atheism and theism. Atheism claims that there is no God, there is no divinity, and that end of this worldly life means complete annihilation. This being the case, we should live this life fully as we won't have any existence whatsoever once we die. Theists on the other hand believe that end of life does not mean complete annihilation. Death only means dissolution of this physical body; our soul, our essence continues to exist as it it beyond decay and destruction. Different religions have taken different position on the after-life. Christians believe that there is an eternal life after death, but we need to earn it. This life is a preparation for the after-life, and thus it becomes worth living. Buddhists believe in continuity, on "becoming"; that death is just an event in the series of "becoming" which continues because we are stuck in the karmic cycle. In order to get rid of pain and suffering we need to get out of this cycle and for that we need to better our karmas; something for which this life is worth living. Hinduism believes in "being" rather than "becoming" and holds that salvation is achieved when we fully eliminate the karmic influences under divine providence and receive His glory. In order to have divine glory reflect in us we need to better our karmas in this life.

So from both, atheistic and theistic, standpoints life is worth living. Inevitability of death does not dilute the importance of life.

Answer 2

Well, people get plenty of reasons to care about their life. A big reason is that nobody wants to die, obviously. Death is painful, scary and you wont be around anymore which is wierd. There is also family, community etc, but its mostly religion which just randomly gives an irrational purpose for humans to live. Lot of people do buy this and find it a good enough to care about living.

You are born and then you die.... so whats the point ? There are millions of people who have pondered this question throughout history and even now. But none of them have come up with anything good. The answers above give different versions but none of them really meaning anything....

One of lifes great unanswerable questions, The purpose of life ?

Answer 3

Knowing death is inevitable shouldn't make life seem hopeless. Its only that way if you view life as what we do to prevent death. Knowing that death will occur no matter what we do takes the responsibility of our mortality away from us. We are not forever bound to this life and so we shouldn't fear death. We were never meant to live forever anyway. Like the song says, life is a journey, not a destination so sit back and enjoy.

Answer 4

Why don't you try not caring about every aspect of your life, your loves and your friendships, not to mention your passions. Then ask why people should care about life even in the inevitability of death.

Answer 5

Death of the body is inevitable, but the spirit does not die. We care about this life because we are created to have a moral consciousness and because somewhere, deep inside, we do realize that eternity exists within our hearts.

Answer 6

Actually, people don't care about life.
(specially about life of OTHER humans and animals)

I think that we're here to learn something.
I don't know what,
like every human I'm too primitive...

I was very self destructive for a long time, that is not the way.
I'm not saying that we should all act like "new born Christians",
that's kind of hypocritical...
But I think "there is a voice inside, talking to everyone".*

Answer 7

If you don't care about life, your life will become worse. Life spiraling downward can become very, very uncomfortable. Unless you like feeling unending pain, hopelessness and depression, you'd better save your money, take care of yourself and care about living your life to the best you know how. Oh, and have a nice day!

Answer 8

Physical dying is a normal course of life. It can happen because of misfortune,sickness or old age. The selfish activities of our mind to destroy anything and anybody is the destructive factor to natural process of living and dying. If we really care for life, our mind should be harmonious not destructive, Our selfishness must be dissolve, this is the root cause of destruction.

Answer 9

Who says that death is the end to life? It could just be the evolution of being alive. We could be like butterflies coming out of our coccoon when we die. In otherwords whe we die we might find ourselves needing a sense of value for life to survive the rest of our life as we do not understand it.

Answer 10

Because life is the shining moment between the time that the spark is struck from the match and the time it hits the ground... knowing that it will hit the ground, should the spark refuse to be a spark? Or should it burn on, hoping to start a fire before it dies?