Why are people afraid of death???

don't get me wrong i'm in no hurry to die but if it's going to happen then please let it be fast and not painful..

People are afraid of dying because they don't know what's going to happen afterwards. Its easy enough to just say 'YAY HEAVEN!!', a place where (coincidentally) everything you've ever wanted ever comes true. That sounds like (as Karl Marx said) an "opiate for the masses" to me.

People aren't afraid of the actual dying, so much as they're terrified of not existing any more. People are scared that once you die, there will be just nothing for all eternity.
My personal belief is that upon dying, our souls do exactly what our bodies do... decompose and spread throughout the surface of the world, giving life to everything else.

Two immidiate reason:

1. Fear of unknown.
2. Fear of probable pain.

death is scary
scary as hell

unknown and impartial it seems unforgiving
but none shall go without their hand being held

Because not everyone has religion, and even the people who have religion have to worry about possibly going to hell.

People fear the unknown. My mother's biggest fear, God bless her, was the fear of there being nothingness after death. She fought her death until she took her last breat on March 3, 2005. It didn't matter how much I tried to reassure her that everything was going to be okay,or how much she read her bible, she was still afraid.

My father, he was completely different. Although he didn't talk about it much,I know that he believe in a hereafter. He passed away relatively peacefully, September 19, 2004.

Both of my parents died rather peacefully, but my mother... wow, it's hard to recall this. She laid in that bed the last 3-4 days of her life, coma, moaned and groaned as if she didn't want to let go of the last thread of life she had in her body... I'll never forget it. :shk:

That had to be traumatic Speaker....

1) People are afraid of the unknown.
2) People see friends, loved ones die and look lifeless. (Makes us deal with our own immortality.)

*For me I feel if this world can contain some 'good times' where I am going in the next realm will be way more exciting! As if this life is to prepare me for the eternal life that God created me for.

I personally don't feel like I have a fear of death persay, if you take hell, heaven and all religion out of the equation. The thing that bothers me about dying is leaving loved ones behind. I worry that they won't be cared for like I care for them.

If there is such a thing as reincarnation one could fear coming back with even a lesser life than he/she is currently experiencing. On the other hand one might come back with a far more abundant life than they have experienced here. Who knows?