A world with no death

[Milon]

We can all see pretty clearly that if humanity stayed as it is - with the exception of becoming immortal - the results would be horrific, as ZC pointed out. So why do we hate death so much? I think it's right to hate murder, but why death? Why do people want to live forever? Is it a way of trying to avoid pain or fear?

 

[Shai Gar]

I deserve to live forever, as do several others who want to help the world...

But we need higher mortality rates.

 

[Milon]

I deserve to live forever, as do several others who want to help the world...

But we need higher mortality rates.

But then the mortals would be forced to follow the commands/whims of the immortals. I see conflict brewing here... (Funny - God seemed to know what he was doing when he granted free will...)

 

[Shai Gar]

how is that any different?

granted being a long lived person would mean that your goals are now long term rather than following the whims/commands of a similarly short lived person who has short goals.

 

[Firelily]

Over the course of my life, I have become quite devout in my belief in the “rule of opposites”. It has become very clear to me that opposites are necessary to give meaning to each other.

Can anyone truly appreciate pleasure without also knowing pain? Can anyone really know love without also knowing hate? Evil gives meaning to goodness, just as cruelty does to kindness, and ugliness to beauty.

Life without death couldn’t ever be nearly as sweet. There would be no motivation to learn and to grow, other than to simply escape the tedium. There would be no need to discover our purpose in this life, no reason to be better from one day to the next, no reason to try to do as much as we can in the time that we have, and no reason to even bother with pondering the meaning of it all.

Seasons of life are inherent to all aspects of nature for a reason. There must always be an end if there is ever to be a beginning and “life” it what happens in between.

 

[Azure_Knight]

Death is a permanent reminder of loss. If we did not lose the people and pets that we are close to, how would we know how important they are to us? I suppose it also gives some weight to the belief that we may see them again (not like zombies or anything; I'm trying to be serious).

It is a difficult lesson to make sense of, and I sometimes wonder if immortality would be a fate worse than death.

 

[Faye]

Without death, life would be meaningless.

 

[slant]

I would say that a world without death might as well be a world without birth because the birth and death process, two extremes, even out Earth's system. Without death the world would become rapidly overpopulated unless there are other implications to this hypothetical situation such as: since there is no death, needs like shelter, food and repoduction are no longer valid.