What is the point of death?

Question

Why do all living things die? What is the purpose in that? Assuming you believe in God of some sort, what part does death play in God's grand scheme of things? If you believe in some sort of an afterlife, why don't people just start out there and never die? I asked this question in the religion section too. I thought I would ask it here in philosophy because the answers are usually more thought out.

Answer 1

It's our mortality that defines us. How we die is at least as important as how we live, don't you think? Figure, if you could live forever, what would be the point? Nothing would be challenging because you'd have all the time you needed to overcome it.

How do we know that this isn't an afterlife for some other plane of existence, and that when this one ends, we don't move on to another?

Answer 2

Everything material undergoes the cycle of becoming and decay. If it would not be like that the earth could not be refreshed and renewed.
The living entitiy in a human being is spirit and the spirit lives on after death. There is a certain law in creation which very much effects our development and this is the law of gravity. So if your body dies and the soul or spirit slips out of the body it will go into a sphere of similar gravity. You yourself must have felt that for sure that there is something in you which you can feel. You can also feel heavy of lighter depending also what you think or open up to and what you feel here is actually your soul.
The meaning of our life is to develop from an unconscious spirit germ into a conscious human being and return from were we are coming from. We come from the spiritual realm and at a time the unconscious wish in every spirit germ awoke to develop. So like a seed only is able to develop in the earth, experiencing, rain, sunlight and having to wake up and grow, so also we humans need many experiences to wake up and learn to understand who we really are so to be able to develop our spirit. An important place for this is the earth.
I could now write a whole book as there is so much more to say.
I found a very logical and clear explanation beyond religious belief
in a book called the Grail Message "In the Light of Truth". It will give you much better explanation than I can do with my words.

Answer 3

The beings best qualified to answer your question can't.

If things don't die then nutrients don't cycle back and life as we know it would cease to exist.

I'm basically an agnostic. I keep an open mind, I live a good life, and as to why we don't just start out in heaven, I think it's along the concept of walking a mile in another man's shoes.

I try to be a better person every day, and to pass things along that I've learned. I may never be wise, whatever that is, but the journey is a lot of fun, and eventually I think most people accept death quite readily.

Answer 4

We tend to think that this life is all there is and removing us from it is an abomination. The truth is this life is temporary. Those who believe in God know that death is the beginning of an eternal life free from darkness and evil. The reason people do not start out in heaven is because love cannot be forced on anyone. God wants our love and relationship. That is the only reason He created us. If we started in heaven, being perfect, we would just be puppets to Him, another creation. But He wants a relationship with us and He wants us to take part in the greater scheme of things in partnering with Him and by doing so build a relationship and love. Would you want to live with someone forced to love you? True love is not something we can learn. It is not a habit either. And, would you want to live with someone you do not know? We need this time on earth to get to know the One who created us. The One we will be spending eternity with.

Answer 5

We are here to experience a physical existence. We choose to experience it before we ever arrive, while we are still in the spiritual or non-physical plane. We also choose our own time and method of physical "death" at the soul level. Not consciously, obviously. The death of the physical form is merely a change of conscious focus from our physical reality back to non-physical or spiritual reality. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. We never truly die. We are, have always been and will always be.

Answer 6

Death is part of the consiquences of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden of eden. Before they sinned, they were not going to die and they'd live happily with everything we can't have now. But they sinned against God and because of that, their life was taken away. Death is when we've fulfilled our duty on earth (unless we commit suicide, but let's not go into that) and we have nothing left to do. To some, death is bad because it takes away from another's joy, and to others, death is good because the one who dies does not have to live in this wretched world any long.

Many people are afraid of death. Personally, I am afraid of what is after death. Heaven could be a bedtime story made up by parents to make their kid feel better when their grandparent died or something, or it could be true. I do not want to disappear from existance. Life on earth is not as important to me as memories or my spirit life, which is the soul and where it goes. Heaven is a pre-sin earth for souls.

Answer 7

As more of an agnostic myself,I think death is kind of like cashing in those two dollar winning scratch tickets that've been bouncing around in your car forever.Last chance to see if you're a winner.Life everlasting or the big nothing.Either way,death is holding all the cards and you won't have any answers until they're dealt.

Answer 8

Well, If I'm am to use symbolism, maybe one can define the afterlife as a big, never-ending long race...which is, I believe, extremely tiring...But what if our, living and dying, (and possibly living again), is a never-ending series of short races..?what if that itself, the never ending series, is the afterlife?It's not really a direct answer, just a what if...

Answer 9

What is clear is that there must be a purpose for being here, otherwise we would stay on "out there" where we "started out". But since the physical body wears out with time, we have to periodically leave it and take on another one.

As I see, the "scheme" is spiritual evolution carried on by and through physical evolution.

Answer 10

you must work hard on earth so the next generation can live and do the same, then get rewarded in your afterlife. would be my philosophy. but really life just formed as the plants do, and the heart can only beat for so long.