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Fearing death is as inevitable as death itself.

We, as human beings, go through the rather typical process of being brought into this world through the miracle of pregnancy and conception and leave this world by the inevitable and unescapable force of death. Previously stated, we can all concur that death is inevitable in that no matter how hard you try to avoid it, it will always linger in the shadows until its presence is appropriate and thusly your life is no more. Although death is perceived differently in many cultures, as some glorify the end of a life by alluding to it as, for example, a dreamless sleep, the fear of death is certainly something that is inevitable but whether it is rational or irrational is surely something that can be debated for an extended period of time. 

Ultimately, human beings strive to survive, which is an obvious fact as we always seek shelter and togetherness in order to fulfill our destinies and whatnot. In addition to shelter, we seek consumable food, we seek a potable source of water, and we also seek a safe haven, far away from the perils and dangers that riddle our planet. These basic instincts of survival certainly attribute to this common fear of death but the way people exert this fear varies from person to person. For example, Bob can live a life filled with consuming copious amounts of alcohol and smoking at least five cigarette packs a day without any regard to his health. Bob, however, assures himself to visit the doctor monthly to check up on his cholesterol levels and other factors that may affect his overall health. We can note that Bob's explicit strive to maintain good health is obviously visiting his doctor but the constant abuse of alcohol and smoking certainly overshadows that in that they do more harm than good for his body. John, on the other hand, lives a drug free/alcohol free life, acknowledging the harmful effects of cigarettes and booze, but does not routinely check up with his doctor, unlike our first example Bob. Although John does not visit his doctor as he should, he still purifies himself by not polluting his body with toxins.

The purpose of the above examples is to exemplify of how human beings yearn to maintain good health despite their daily life routines. Although you may not be frank reading this blog at the moment, you can certainly attest to this as you either exercise or diet to maintain good health or you occasionally visit your doctor to see if you're in good health. Exercise, dieting, weight loss programs, vitamins, and many upon many other examples certainly imply that mostly every human being wants to compete in living a longer life than others. Sure, argue that corpulent and morbidly obese individuals who constantly feed themselves unhealthy foods is against this notion but perhaps we can consider that whether an overweight person WANTS to be in his or her current position. Environmental and genetic factors certainly play major roles in determining a person's weight and we must not blatantly state that fat people are just "not as competitive" as people who want to be in shape. Everybody is competitive in the game of life but there are obviously external factors that can warp the competitiveness slightly. 

Tying everything together, the constant emphasis on trying to maintain good health is undermined by a fear of death, whether you would like to admit it or not. As stated before, every person varies in their fear in that there are people who constantly anticipate their deaths while there are others who distract themselves with various activities and refuse to regard their future demise. If people were immortal in that death would never occur, would we still attempt to stay in shape and remove our addictions to drugs and alcohol? Certainly but we are not immortal beings and we all ultimately perform healthy routines in order to prolong our lives. With that being said, the fear of death itself is inevitable - you can cope with the reality of this through visible anxieties or you can simply distract yourself from this fear, as do most people, by occupying your time with your family, your job, your friends, etc. We all, however, have some degree of this fear embedded in our minds.

In regards to the rationality or irrationality behind the fear of death, this particular issue is surely something that can be debated among persons for a good portion of time. If something is inevitable, there must not be a rational foundation behind it as the inevitable force is unavoidable and we cannot evade ourselves from its presence. This, however, branches onto other arguments mainly consisting of the belief of afterlives and whatnot, which will not be conversed due to its heated nature. 
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