Death - Why do we fear the unknown?

I've been thinking about this lately, why exactly do we fear the unknown?

Firstly, We (The majority of us) Fear death, Why?.. Because it's unknown. Which in all fairness makes sence seeming as there could be hell once we are gone, But why does unknown have to be bad? For all we know our souls could go somewhere amazing, Is it just some sort of instinct that makes us fear what we do not know? If yes, why do we allways asume badly?

Now I'm not saying everybody shares this fear, I just feel like this myself and was wondering if anyone could help me understand why I feel like this?. I know it is totally normal, and I am a generally nervous person but I just want a insight on how people can just, for example, walk into a dark supposedly haunted house and not know whats in it, and not be terrified?!

I think my main agenda here is death. I can't understand how one day I'm utterly terrified to die, then the next day i'm taking a 'bring it on' attitude and doing silly things that I know could hurt me. I admit, I am terrified of death, which brings me back to my point, only because I've done bad things in the past and I don't know what will happen to me.

What do you think about death? I would love to see if any people here are unphased by the unknown.

But I guess we wont know what happens untill our time comes?


(Mods feel free to move this, Im randomly babbling and had no idea what forum to put it in )


Blue

Hey Crookedblue/


Well,
Fearing death is somewhat associated with being alone, in my opinion.
I guess you could be fearing death because you sense something within your soul?
You could be happy with your life right now,and don't ever want to be apart from family and friends and so on,you are having fun and enjoying yourself and you may be having thoughts on all this will one day come to an end?
Which in turn brings on feelings of being all alone?
I cannot truthfully answer your fear of death...only you can.
I do know that we all experience fear somewhat in our lives and question life about our being here,it's all natural to do this, and you're not alone.
Death in some cultures is looked upon as celebrating the after life.....eg/by having friends and family come to the house...'WAKE' it is for the soul entering the after life.

does that make sense?
take care,
just remember,
''do unto others as you would have others do unto you,''
all will be good......
later crooked!

Fear of the unknown probably stems from instinct way back when we were considered lower on the food chain - the instinctual fear of sharp pointy teeth and not having those pointy teeth sticking into your body.
The fear of what animal lurks in the dark ready to pounce. These fears have been so ingrained into our psyche that as we no longer require the fear response (being top predator) we still find that instinctual behaviour kicks in and we become afraid.
Fear of death also probably stems from the nature of humans, the way we want to know everything and if were dead then we stop knowing.


G

We shouldn't fear the moment of death itself, it's something so serenely peaceful and painless. If you have ever had a near-fatal accident, that sudden wave of calm and clarity that comes before loss of conciousness is your body flooding the brain with endorphins-a natural morphine-like substance. In my case, I had a major head injury and the sense of pain lasted a split-second before I felt calm, peaceful and grounded, with no sense of physical/emotional pain or loss...I can only describe it as something like a sensation of being in the womb.

The only fear of death that we have is of leaving our friends and loved ones behind, that we cannot help comfort them in their loss of our passing; something that is no longer taught as part of our cultural upbringing. Death is a journey to another existence that we cannot know until we arrive, just as was our birth. Both events should be equally celebrated, the wheel of life complete