Do Humans need fear?

Question

In much older times, every nation "invented" something to fear. Vampires, Ghouls, Banshees, Dragons, Demons etc.
Nothing like that occurs nowadays, is that because there is enough fear from other things like, War, terrorism, nuclear weapons, aids, ebola etc.
This makes me wonder if the human phsyce needs something to fear!!!

Answer 1

It is a matter of balance:
If You would have CONFIDENCE, then You need to have FEAR, correct?
otherwise, not having None of them, You would feel nothing...
These are two emotions or feeling that are much alike in perception, yet completely opposite on substance: FEAR makes you believe or envision an scenario when You will loose something : Your life, Your money, Your should, Your family, whatever.
CONFIDENCE makes You believe You may grow through ages, and have Your memories remembered for ever after, "keeping" whatever You already have or making you earn more of what You want or wish to have.
Hopefully this seems fit!
Good luck! Bear hugs! ;-)

Answer 2

Sure we do. If we did not fear, we would walk right into danger and possibly be injured or killed. There are very real threats out there that our fear helps us avoid. Even if there were no vampires, ghouls, etc., there were still things that went bump in the night that it was best to avoid. And we would probably fear the others now, too, if we hadn't learned over time that they didn't exist.

Answer 3

Yeah, we need something to fear. Fear motivates us. It can give us strength to survive. Fear is just a chemical reaction in our brain that improves the level of adrenaline and gives the muscles more oxygen to move faster and survive. However these fictional fears ensures that the mechanism works even if there is not a real danger. It is like some kind of failsafe.

Answer 4

Myths and folklore come from our distant past when man first began to think. This is what has set him apart from all other animals. We have the ability to redraw the past or think about the future. Early cave drawings depict all manner of manifestations, all conjured up by the human mind. It was called Spirituality because Shamans began testing with hallucinogenic drugs. In trance like states, they drew their creations so they could flow into the future and come back with dreams of creatures that will haunt the past. In recent years all this, except in a few isolated pockets around the world, has been lost to people who want material gains instead of community spirit. Fear was the bedrock of small communities to instill a feeling of togetherness. Do you feel like that fear and togetherness has gone?.

Answer 5

It's a trick of the mind designed to stop us falling into the same mistakes time and time again. I think things like vampires were just invented when there was a bit of a hysteria about the country, and the government at the time were trying to control people a bit better. We don't need fear, but it works to our advantage.

Answer 6

Fear is perhaps the only protection for human kind against awesome possibilities of its own mind. It is a historical fact that we have always kept ourselves well protected within the folds of fear of one type or the other. We have always sought guidance from the knowledge and beliefs we attributed and associated with various things that we found fearful; things both in general nature, and also in our own nature in forms of our facts and fantasies of our life. Fear is , and have always been so much a part of human psyche that to be afraid at times is synonymous with being wise. But like in all other evolutionary aspects of human mind, we are in fact in search for something that we can be afraid of the way we have never been; something that is truly worthy of our sense of admiration, awe and grandeur put together. We see that faith defines our fearfulness only into the wrath of God, but also into the sense of loss of His favours upon us – a fear of not receiving rewards that we as human being ultimately find ourselves rightfully deserving however only conditionally, is far superior to the fear of mere punishment that He might incur upon as a result of us being unworthy.

The greatest threat we face today comes not form outside but from the power and capability that accumulation of human knowledge have bestowed upon our mind. A normal mind today tend to be more rational than ever, and yet knowledge never gives us full answers but only questions to marks the frontiers or awareness that we know are severely limited. And thus we, made so bold by our overwhelming reliance upon physical knowledge, might fearlessly leap into some very alien and ultimately destructive capabilities of our own mind – a mind entirely constructed upon knowledge and information is a mind that is a mere a reflection of what is around us.

But what, I think, we essentially are can sometimes be better understood by an acute sense of self preservation, and this is what we understand and bring home by fear. We must have fear all the way along as we travel into this world and also into our mind, but what type of fear should be there to instruct us better, to protect us entirely, should be the question centre of our discourse today.

Answer 7

Individuals shouldn't need fear. The only thing to fear is fear itself.

Propaganda's main tool is fear. Most of the above you have mentioned have been exploited for the purpose of those who expose it to the people for the purpose of control.

Fear isn't necessary to survive but is necessary to "manufacture consent". Regardless if religious or political.

Answer 8

fear is something hat keeps us aware to what we do and what is happening.. if we did not fear getting sick.. how sick would we have to be before we care about our selves.. if we don't fear arrest.. how many crimes wouldwe commit.. if we didn't fear aids... would we educate the dangers to our children? Fear is a natural way of making choices, goals, and shaping our lives.. Fear is not a bad thing.. but 100% needed.. just because you fear something.. doesn't make you a caoward.. it takes courage to admit to EVERYthnign your scared of...

Answer 9

Well of course, because fear has kept us alive all this thousands of years. Considering the fact that fear is a primordial defense instinct, i believe that its a necessity.And because we really didn't have things to fear we created the mythical creatures to fear.So my conclusion is that fear is a must to survive.

Answer 10

Yes , I think so , otherwise they would be more reckless and stupid than they are .
Imagine the primitive cave dweller , imagining all sorts of dangers lying in wait , this has contributed to lots of our culture , story telling , preventive science , and there are elements of fear that push us on to be more inventive and perhaps creative culturally.