Is death an enemy or friend of humanity?

Question

Is death just a natural part of life?

Answer 1

Yes its completely natural as part of the life cycle. Everything has a life cycle from cars and food to humans and the pet dog. There is a beginning, a middle and an ending. Its a friend.

Answer 2

To get to the role that death plays, I think we must first consider the nature of death itself.

Therefore, the first question I'm going to address is, "Can humans survive without death, at least in theory?" We know that human lifespans (at least on average) have been lengthening. We are curing more and more diseases. We might even develop a mostly-closed community somewhere in space where many (if not all) harmful environmental factors would be excluded. In such a scenario, I don't think it's inconcievable that humans would simply never die (at least biologically). There doesn't seem to be any substantial reason to believe that we might not cure or eliminate any ailment... someday changing old organs for new ones may be no more difficult than changing the oil in your car. Perhaps even age itself will be eliminated as an effect.

In such a community, we might also remove the need for other things to die. We might produce food for ourselves chemically, we wouldn't be taking any habitats from other creatures, and if the environment were sterile enough we might not even need to fight off an kill infections of any kind. So it seems plausible to imagine a community where physical death of any kind would simply not be a factor.

This begs the second question: "Is such a community intrinsically more desirable than one where death is present?" Right now people seldom choose death for themselves, and often those who do are considered mentally ill. Thus suggests that not personally being subject to death might be considered a boon, at least on the scale of normal preference. Certainly if a creature need not expend energy to sieze life and space from other creatures, it suggests that such energy might (not must) be used for other enterprises instead... perhaps increasing the value of the lives of creatures not involved with death.

There are some who will argue that death is important, either for religious reasons or because a long life is intrinsically a punishment. Rather than addressing those questions, I'll point out that while a person in community such as I have described above is not normally subject to death, there is no reason why such a community might not be constructed to allow suicide. Thus those who wished to die for whatever reason might still accomplish this, while others who see every day as a value could have this as well.

A community without death seems to only have benefits and no intrinsic drawbacks. Therefore, it would seem that death is no friend to humanity overall, even if some few do see it as something to be sought after. The community doesn't seem impossible, so I conclude that it is not an intrinsic, natural part of life (there are many creatures we know of who already do not succumb to old age at any point) but just a condition which happens to exist for the time being.

So it goes.

Answer 3

Imagine the horror of immortality in a finite and contingent world and you can see that death, though sad, is not so wrought with the tragic that we often apply to it. Whether or not it is our friend-- that would take us into what possibilities might exist for us beyond death-- if there are any at all. For example, if death brings with it everlasting beatitude, then we can say, that death might be conceived of as being friendly. But then we would have to ask how we might verify the truth of such a claim. But death could have another consequence, maybe there is nothing, or maybe our existence would be worse. In that case, death would not win any popularity contests.

As far as death being "natural", from mere observation of the natural world, death seems integral and necessary. Without death, it would seem from evidence in the natural world, life itself would not be possible, at least not as we know it.

Answer 4

Death is a natural part of life. That is what we can be sure of - everyone who is born is going to die. The only question is: when.

If someone is in great pain then death is a true friend.

If someone has not completed what they want to complete, then death is an enemy.

However, we cannot escape.

Answer 5

Death is neither a friend nor an enemy... it is a necessity for life to flourish. The ultimate truth is that if there were to be no death, life would be no life and living would become a curse beyond a point.... the very knowledge that life is for ever, would make life much less precious to us than it is. Death is therefore a boon in disguise.

Answer 6

Of course death is natural - is it enemy or friend? - that is the human dichotomy. I think it depends on how you see death - the end, the beginning, the renewal...
Perhaps it's "user defined".
Charles Dickens wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," and although he was referring to the French Revolution I think it applies here as well. For death, whether friend or foe is certainly a revolution.

Answer 7

It would matter in what case if its an enemy or humanitarian. It is a natural part of life due to the fact it is part of the life cycle.

Answer 8

I wouldn't say it's a friend. It's not something we choose. It's more like a relative, something we're stuck dealing with.

Yes it's a natural part of life. We don't have to have a morbid obsession with it, we just have to remember that it is coming one day. The good news is, all that dies is the body, you, the being inside, your soul, is immortal. You will live forever in the afterlife (in Heaven, or in Hell if you've been a really bad dude, like Hitler or something. Well, in the case of Hell that's not good news at all. You suffer for eternity. Anyway, just in case you might as well try to be a good person in this world. Don't go around killing people & stuff.)

Answer 9

Death is as natural as birth, and in the end is the great leveler, as yet there is no "cure" so nobody gets out of life alive

Answer 10

It is neither a friend nor an enemy. It is just a fact of life.