what are we afraid of?

Question

Humankind are by nature aggressive creatures...we can react to almost any situation with aggression ahead of any other emotional understanding...most of the time,aggression comes from fear...if we are the all conquering top of the food chain race that we put ourselves out there to be...what are we so afraid of....???

Answer 1

The unknown

Answer 2

We are indeed at the top of the food chain, but it isn't other creatures below us on this food chain, that we are afraid of. We fear each other, and the PEOPLE who are superior to us. Remember the saying, "Man's greatest fear is himself" (or something like that)? We fear what we can do to each other, how we can hurt each other. Though you say that humans are naturally agressive creatures, though this might be true, it is really the emotional side of out nature that truly governs our fear. We fear things like lonliness, abandonment, pain, because we have these emotions, and can be hurt because of them. Humans are so vulnerable BECAUSE we have these thoughts, feelings, and ideas, and can be manipulated by them. There are so many ways that people stronger than we are, can take advantage of us. Our "natural agression" cannot always save us. And we know it. Think of the Holocaust. So many people succumbed to the cruelties being committed, because they were afraid of the people at the top of the human "food chain," and what monstrosities human kind is capable of. We fear the Hitlers of the world, and we fear indifference. How can it be asked, "what are we so afraid of" when we are so obviously afraid of so many things?

Answer 3

Nearly everything we do or feel is based on our experiences in life, learned behaviour... we are taught to fear, from a very early age and if we believe what is said, then it probably all starts in the womb when the mother reacts to particular things in her environment (believing that the foetus feels this too) think about it, as kids we are taught "don't talk to strangers", lots of kids are afraid of the dark... in some skandinavian countries where they
have long nights and short days the suicide rate is much higher, because the darkness apparently "depresses" humans..why is that?why are we afraid of the darkness? it's all learned behaviour...
but be realistic, if we had no fears we wouldn't be human, we'd think we had super human powers and nothing could hurt us or cause our downfall... and that would be our downfall..
we are top of the food chain BECAUSE we think before we act, because we act on feelings, because we can communicate, because we act on experiences.
or because some of us don't.... that's what makes us human...and differenciates us from the "animal" world!

I don't believe that we react to almost any situation with aggression ahead of any other emotional understanding though..but your question really made me think about it!!

Answer 4

i think we are afraid of the unknown, its a big scary world out there.
we don't even know who we are supposed to be fighting.. though we are, as a race, getting quite good at killing each other.
perhaps the reason that peace amongst the human race is so unattainable is down to our fear?
we are afraid of competition, of being shunned from our social groups, we fear being alone, the creatures in the darkness of our minds.
the only way we seem to have to deal with our emotions is either by hiding away or by fighting...it doesn't seem to matter what we are fighting, we just seem to feel stronger and more complete when we are fighting something.
perhaps it dates to our cave man origins, when to relax could be deadly. or perhaps it comes from the depths of our imagination, where our deepest fears are hidden.
a tough question but what is your biggest fear and if you were to confront it how would you deal with it... violence or hiding?
i know that if my children and loved ones were ever threatened i would react with violence to the situation

Answer 5

This is quite simple. We fear that which we don't understand. This is the root of many problems such as racism, religious intolerence and bigotry. Mostly, we fear ourselves and what we know we are capable of. I hope a gave you a little insight and IF i didn't, I sincerely apologize for wasting your time. Write back if you would like to talk more.

Answer 6

I'm only afraid of God, because he's the one in control, and the one to whom I will be accountable to when I die.

But then again I'm not really afraid of him because in Christ he has provided a substitute: I deserve hell for the wrong things I've done, but Christ died on the cross so that I might live eternally in him. How can you really be afraid of someone you love? I suppose I'm afraid of my dad in that I don't want to disappoint him. It's the same with my Heavenly Father- I love him and want to serve him but I'm always a bit afraid when I do something wrong, even though I know he loves me no less.

:)

Answer 7

In my opinion I think that we are afraid of fear! It is that simple. I know that I am afraid of the unknown and what might/could happen. It doesn't matter that we are the top of the food chain we as people are just afraid of fear.

Answer 8

we are afraid of everything.If you are young you are afraid of being to fat,not having the right type of phone,not passing your exams,being regarded as the wrong type of person,never getting a boy/girlfriend ,if you are older ,you are afraid of getting older ,losing your hair ,not being able to buy a house,getting left on the shelf ,Not looking as good as you did 5 years ago ,your bio clock (if you don't have a child) if you do your stretch marks for women,for men ,not having a big enough penis coz everyone else does,not being able to perform 4 times a night coz all your mates can.Worrying if you are going to get passed over for that promotion ,
Not to mention worrying about your kids.In short we worry about what we think is normal and wether anyone else has noticed that we are not mentally and physically perfect.

Answer 9

We have evolved to be more fearful. In ages past, the brave (or foolhardy) would take more risks and meet with more accidental deaths or attacks from others. The more fearful would stay where they felt protected. The more fearful would be more likely to survive and pass on their fearful genes to their offspring.

Answer 10

we are afraid of dying.

in evolutonary terms, dying with out a chance, or while still able to, pass on our DNA.

Out of that, we are afraid of what we don't know. I think that, ultimately, is why we are scared of death. Dying wouldn't be so bad if we knew what would happen after that.

I also think not leaving our mark, and not leaving something to be remembered by, scares us. Like, dying without having contributed anything to society.