What is Death?

My name is J.N, and I am a student at GCE lab school. I am in a class title "Who am I" We learn about philosophy, history, and different ideas plagued in history. We go on multiple Field Experiences in order to understand on what truth and memory are. In this class, we are supposed to do a podcast for an Action Project. Each of my classmates had to decide on what we remember, believe, and had to explain why we choose the topic. I have alway wanted to talk about how society precise atheist, and why we believe religion.I have worked on weeks with this podcasts, as well as getting help from my teachers. I had to record this script multiple times in order to get the podcast right. One of the biggest challenges in create this podcast would be to try to shorten it for the time limit.

I am proud of the topic I explained in this podcast. I hope my ideas brings upon new perspective on religion, and society in general. I would like to thank my teachers for helping me create this podcast. I hope you all enjoy.

 

I have always been optimistic about everything. If I would see any dog, I would admire it. If I saw an half empty cup of milk, I would think of it as half full. But I was never optimistic about death.

 I shudder at the idea of death because you can’t stop it no matter how hard you try. To me, the idea of what happens after death haunts me. My mother on the other hand is a high Catholic believer, and had her god in her heart since she was young. But I was never a true believer in religion.

 I always saw the “lord’s” watching as inhuman, and dark, instead of the idea of safety. I have always hated church. My church community would not only try to encourage, but force me to go into group summonings for children. But the more I grew, the more I began to question. I started to hear people talk about their lord and from my perspective, they sounded idiotic. As I grew older, I couldn’t understand the “greatness” of religion.

 It wasn’t until in middle-school when I met a friend named Pablo, who is an atheist. Seeing his life influenced my ideas on religion. It wasn’t until later on that I became an atheist and had certain ideals and opinions on religion. I believe religion was created to confront the idea of death, and that those people who would disagree on religion would be rejected or ridiculed, since they are disturbing or ruining the “truth” religionist have created.

 Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” makes the reader question something about themselves. Whether it would be their existence, intelligence, or identity . If you don’t know the story, it goes like this. There are prisoners trapped in a cave since childbirth. There is a light shining behind them, and they can only see the shadows of the real world. One day, one prisoner is freed and goes out into the real world. He is blinded by the light of the sun at first, but eventually begins to see. He could have lived in the outside world for the rest of his life, but instead goes back to the other prisoners to tell them what he saw. When he confronts his fellow prisoners, they believe he is crazy, and kills him.

 To me, the moral of the story is how people perceive the truth and how a person is marked as insane or ridiculous, since they think differently. Just how the prisoners believed that our main prisoner was crazy, the same concept goes for people who would think differently about death or religion. There have been multiple famous historical figures who were called crazy for thinking beyond the idea of society and religion, such as Socrates, and are somewhat punished for it. Even when we see these examples, similar events still happen today.

 Religion was created in order to give us a comforting idea on death. We humans are curious creatures, and since we didn’t have much access to the answers such as where we come from, we humans decided to create religion in order to answer these question. We chose to create the answers and reject the truth that state otherwise. In the article “Why Is There Religion” on foundalis.com, the author Harry Foundalis states “ Religion is something like fat: it’s an added feature that used to be useful for our survival in the past, but now causes mostly harm to humankind.”

 Truth is defined as knowledge that is realistic, ideas that are cannot be avoided in this world. Knowledge that isn’t fiction. But we humans can’t stand the idea of nothing when coming onto the idea of death. Especially when it comes to my family, since they are mainly Catholic. In the words of Harry Foundalis “But what nurtures the human psyche with courage is not the particular idea of salvation, but the more general one of afterlife, the hope that death is not the end of it all.”

 We can’t avoid death, but that doesn’t mean we can’t accept life. Sure, you can think that we become nothing, and be scared of death, or you live your life the way you wanted to. Unlike death, you can change life, and you do know what happens in life, good or bad. Not only that, but there might be proof of life not ending when death comes. In the article “First Hint of ‘Life After Death’ in biggest ever scientific study” on telegraph.co.uk, It states “ Of 2,060 cardiac arrest patients studied, 330 survived and of 140 surveyed, 39 per cent said they had experienced some kind of awareness while being resuscitated”. Don’t fear death, but rather live life.



Harry Foundalis “Why is There Religion” foundalis.com Jan 25, 2017
http://www.foundalis.com/rlg/WhenceReligion.htm

Sarah Knapton, “First Hint of ‘Life After Death’ in biggest ever scientific study” telegraph.co.uk Jan 26, 2017
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/first-hint-of-life-after-death-in-biggest-ever-scientific-study/

“Relaxing Piano Music, Peaceful Music, Relaxing, Meditation Music, Background Music, ☯2982” youtube.com Jan 29, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh6TE6dDwuI

“CAVE SOUNDS” youtube.com Jan 29, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVhZMcBOPWE