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Are you afraid of death?


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It would be interesting..Those of us claiming to not fear death..to experience Waterboarding..

 

I'd almost like to try it...Just to see my own reaction.

 

Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning.

 

Although a variety of specific techniques are used in waterboarding, the captive's face is usually covered with cloth or some other thin material, and the subject is immobilized on his/her back. Water is then poured onto the face over the breathing passages, causing an almost immediate gag reflex and creating the sensation that the captive is drowning.[1][2][3] Waterboarding can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage and, if uninterrupted, death.[4] Adverse physical consequences can manifest themselves months after the event, while psychological effects can last for years.[5] The term water board torture appears in press reports as early as 1976.[6]

 

In 2007 it was reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was using waterboarding on extrajudicial prisoners and that the Department of Justice had authorized the procedure,[7][8] even though the United States government hanged Japanese soldiers for waterboarding US prisoners of war in World War II.[9] Alleged Al-Qaeda suspects upon whom the CIA is known to have used waterboarding are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.[10][11] According to Justice Department documents, the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed provided information about an unrealized attack on Los Angeles.[12]

 

During the presidency of George W. Bush, U.S. government officials at various times said they did not believe waterboarding to be a form of torture.[13][14][15][16] To justify its use of waterboarding, the George W. Bush administration issued classified legal opinions that argued for a narrow definition of torture under U.S. law, including the Bybee memo, which it later withdrew.[17][18][19] In January 2009 President Barack Obama banned the use of waterboarding. In April 2009, the U.S. Department of Defense refused to say whether waterboarding is still used for training (e.g. SERE) purposes.[12][20]

 

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It would be interesting..Those of us claiming to not fear death..to experience Waterboarding..

 

I'd almost like to try it...Just to see my own reaction.

 

Hey, that sounds like fun! Come on over to my place. I'm sure I could rig up something to give you the waterboarding experience. I'll bet we could make a great youtube vid out of it. :lol:

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It would be interesting..Those of us claiming to not fear death..to experience Waterboarding..

 

I'd almost like to try it...Just to see my own reaction.

 

Hey, that sounds like fun! Come on over to my place. I'm sure I could rig up something to give you the waterboarding experience. I'll bet we could make a great youtube vid out of it. :lol:

 

Hey! I'm there!

 

Actually, I'll be in Lincoln next month the week of the 14th...might need something to do unless the online facebook girlfriend has other plans for me.

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The idea of death is one i have always thought a lot about. I think it is natural to be unsure about the future. Death scares me because it is the unknown.. Are there pearly gates? Is my family all sitting on the other end waiting for me?

 

I would like to think heaven is this great place, and we all go there and be happy.. but logic tells me this might not be the case.

 

I honestly believe if we do good in this life, we will get a better life and be "reborn" in to a certain situation that is either more positive or more negative.

 

I dont know though. This stuff makes me think waaaaay too hard.

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Apparently Stephen Hawking sees it like were robots or something. No one knows, you have to go off of faith and what you believe in. Hawking is entitled to his beliefs but to call it a fairy story is a bit naive. How can he be one of the worlds smartest people and be closed minded ?

 

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said. "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven

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Apparently Stephen Hawking sees it like were robots or something. No one knows, you have to go off of faith and what you believe in. Hawking is entitled to his beliefs but to call it a fairy story is a bit naive. How can he be one of the worlds smartest people and be closed minded ?

 

 

Close minded to what, though? Close minded in that we should believe there is an infinite number of possibilities that could happen to us after we die? That heaven of the Judeo-Christian religion could exist as could every other religions' idea of an afterlife. But just as equally so could a field of gum drops with 20 foot talking bunny rabbits that we run alongside all day with? I don't think Hawking is close minded, I think he and the rest of the us just live in a world governed by reason, logic and science. Why need faith about an afterlife? There is no absolutely no reason to believe there is one.

 

I saw the article yesterday, too. I found his quotes very interesting:

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said.

 

"We should seek the greatest value of our action."

 

Live this life for what it is. Don't live it with hopes that it will continue. Make every moment count now.

 

"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."
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A couple things.

 

1) I'm afraid of dying. I don't want to leave this earth, I don't want to be old and I don't want to have to leave the people I love. I don't want to lay in a hospital bed knowing that it's the last place I'll ever be. And given that it's more likely to die of disease than just natural causes, it's very frightening.

 

I'm also equally afraid of losing the ones I love. I'm fortunate enough to still have my parents and it's tough to imagine lift without them. Similarly, it's tough to imagine my girlfriend (and probably future fiancee/wife) dying on me in the future. Scary thought.

 

2) I'm afraid of the unknown. Maybe there's a God and heaven, maybe there's a Satan and hell. Maybe, when we die, that's it. No afterlife, no recurring thoughts - just nothingness that is impossible to experience. That was our one shot at life and it is over for the rest of eternity.

 

All that said, I don't let it (or try not to let it) affect my everyday life. You just have to be grateful for every day and the moments you are given.

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A couple things.

 

1) I'm afraid of dying. I don't want to leave this earth, I don't want to be old and I don't want to have to leave the people I love. I don't want to lay in a hospital bed knowing that it's the last place I'll ever be. And given that it's more likely to die of disease than just natural causes, it's very frightening.

 

I'm also equally afraid of losing the ones I love. I'm fortunate enough to still have my parents and it's tough to imagine lift without them. Similarly, it's tough to imagine my girlfriend (and probably future fiancee/wife) dying on me in the future. Scary thought.

 

2) I'm afraid of the unknown. Maybe there's a God and heaven, maybe there's a Satan and hell. Maybe, when we die, that's it. No afterlife, no recurring thoughts - just nothingness that is impossible to experience. That was our one shot at life and it is over for the rest of eternity.

 

All that said, I don't let it (or try not to let it) affect my everyday life. You just have to be grateful for every day and the moments you are given.

 

You basically nailed it on the head for me. The only thing that I would add would be I think about death alot. I prepare for it everyday as a police officer and I don't mean that in a heroic sense either. Every car I stop, every call I go on, everytime I leave my house, I think I'm going to die that day or be faced with a situation where I could die. It's a s&*tty feeling to have everyday, but I love what I do and wouldn't trade it for the world..............most days. I told my wife that the only thing I don't think I could handle mentally would be losing one of our boys. If I lost one of our boys.........I don't know what I would do. When I became a father I was filled with so much passion and love for those boys and a sense of I would do anything for those boys it's kinda scary. Shortly before I left the SWAT team I was shot at several times and by the grace of god I wasn't hit and neither were any of my team members. While I was sitting at home trying to return to my "normal" life after some guy just tried to kill me it hit me...........I could've died just a little while ago. It scared the hell out of me and made me shake after the fact. Needless to say once my boys were born I didn't think I could go through a door after people like that anymore. Having said that I may have to do that as a police officer, but that's what the SWAT team is for. This maniac killed his wife and neighbor in the street and was going to kill his 5 children upstairs when we went in.

 

I'm not a religious man, but I'm a spiritual man. What I mean by that is, some people fear god and think he's vengeful and we'll all pay for our sins. I don't believe that...........my god is an understanding god that will forgive me for my sins and accept me for who I am because after all........he made me.

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