What is fear? - My ponderings!

[techy]

Can fear ever truely defined?

I have thought about this alot, and I have come to the conclusion that all fears stem from the primal fear of death. But is that true? Certainly if you were to look at it long enough and erratically enough, then you can say any fear is a fear of death, but what really is the fear of death, and what makes us afraid of it? Is it our genes, our soul, or some other unknown region of being that we have yet to discover. Is there god, is there life after death, are we just afraid of finding out? To many the belief that there is an afterlife, that there is a god is comforting, but what of athiests? To define fear I believe one must first define courage, and what it means to be courageous. I believe that we must also first the unknown, and death. But can we ever define these things? What are the defining characteristics? We have reived the clinically dead, but never the brain dead, does this mean that we have a sould that resides in our brain that leaves us after clinical death to go to an afterlife? Or is it just because we have not gotten the technology yet to revive from braindeath that we have death at all and not merely a greater state of coma? What is the unkown, well an average man would say it is what is not known, but do we ever really know anything, or do we just have to beleive we know these things to keep from being terrified every second of every day? And what does it mean to have courage, typically it is defined as being able to face one's fears, but if we do not fully understand fear how do we know what it is to have courage, if we had nothing to fear could we not be courageous? All these things have to be defined before we can truely ever define fear. So, what do you think, am I a crazy man who knows no bounds of insanity, or am I a wise man with true words to speak. Can you define fear?

[donovangallaway]

`I think that it would be rather difficult to define fear, but I think the issue that is becoming revealed through the questions that you're asking mainly concerns itself with death (or perhaps the fear of death) more than fear itself. How about we tackle these questions one at a time, as to make it seem more like conscious thought and less like something you wrote while you were stoned ;P Let's start with your premise. How did you come to the conclusion that all fears stem from fear of death?

[sw337dr34mziez]

Yeah, there are a lot of questions in there. But as for fear/fear of death - I would have to say that human beings are really at the core just animals. We've been designed in the same manner as other animals, with basic instincts to help us survive both as a race and as individuals.

Fear is helping us survive as a species, because it keeps us away from things that could potentially harm us. If we weren't afraid of death, then we would have no reason not to kill ourselves every time we stubbed a toe or became unhappy, and we would no longer be here.

I think fear is a necessity for life, the same way that water and oxygen are.

On a side note, I think we're complex enough to be afraid of things other than death, though most fears could probably be traced back to that.
(i.e. fear of heights = fear of falling = fear of death).
We're also afraid of pain, which may not cause death.
And I know that I'm personally afraid of boredom/monotony, which I don't think has anything to do with being afraid to die.

[bronnblackwater]

`I thought it was "the Mindkiller."

[dragonfriend]

`Fear is what one does not understand. It is also a naturally ingrained ability that tells us to avoid the fear in question in order to preserve our well-being.