Dr. Jonathan Crane, MD - Entry 026 (Patreon)

CRANE: A query came across my desk regarding innate fears – questioning as to whether or not the fear of death should be considered one as well. For those who did not hear the previous lecture, I stated that animals, including humans obviously, are born two innate fears. The fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. The fear of death has been a subject of constant debate within various circles, and my position has not wavered. What one must understand is that animals do not fear what they cannot comprehend. Therefore, as animals have no concept of death, it cannot be feared. The same is true for humans in their youth; the idea of death is completely foreign to a child, up to a certain age – and because of this, a child would have no grasp on the gravity of death.

There was an old belief pertaining to the idea of original sin, that humans by nature are violent. A classic example being the suffocating child; if you were to, god forbid, suffocate a child, their initial instinct would be to thrash about. This led to the idea that humans are evil from birth, as opposed to the far more logical assumption that to humans and animals alike, self-preservation is key to survival. Now this may be splitting hairs to some, and difficult to grasp for others, but this reaction does not denote a fear of death – but rather, a fear of no longer being alive, and that is a very different thing. 

Do animals know when something is dead? Absolutely. Do they know that death is the end? No, they do not because in reality, it isn’t. Now don’t worry none – I’m not preaching the afterlife; despite a strong religious upbringing I am a man of science first. What I mean is, life is cyclical. From things as simple as the sun and moon’s rotation of the Earth to the far more complex phases of evolution, and the eventual supernova that will consume this galaxy only to start all over again, circle of life, etc., etc. 

Of course, it intrigues me to think that it is more than likely that this has all been said before in a solar system long since destroyed in this very spot – billions and billions of years ago. Makes the mind sting to ponder this too much, however, I have drifted from my point. Returning to the question at hand – death cannot be an innate fear because we have no concept of what death entails. It’s only later in life that death becomes something to fear, and in most cases, the actual act of dying is the least of our fears. We fear for those left behind, we fear being forgotten, and more often than not, we fear the pain that we may feel before meeting our end. If we simply blinked out of existence when our time was up, I feel there would be considerably less fear of death in the world. But it will never be innate. 

Logged as Entry: Crane 026.