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The opposite of life questions never asked:

What purpose does naturally inevitable death serve?

What's the reason for death? Or rather why do you think you as a human were designed to die eventually?

Is your inevitable death to be looked at as a good thing or a bad thing? And why?

If you think life is valuable and/or important, do you think death is equally valuable and/or important? And why?

tecoyah

Death is the reason for living life to its fullest, it is the motivation behind science and spiritual growth.

Humans are designed to die, so as to create the reasoning behind exploration of possibilities.

Death is indeed a good thing, as it creates a reason for procreation.

Life and death are equally important, as one would be irrelevant without the other.

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Glory's Sun

here's my take on death in 3 poems

Life is a gift that must be given back
And joy should arise from it's possesion
It's too damned short and that's a fact
hard to accept this earthly procession
To final darkness is a journey done
Circle completed-work of art sublime
A sweet melodic rhyme.. a battle won
--Book Of Counted Sorrows

Death is no fearsome mystery
He is well known to thee and me
He hath no secrets he can keep
To trouble any good mans sleep

Turn not they face from death away
Care not he takes our breath away
Fear him not he's not thy master
Rushing at the faster, faster
Not they master but servant to the maker of thee,
What or who created death created thee and is the only mystery
--Book Of Counted Sorrows

Death is only a reward
To which we have to look toward
The end of a troublesome life
The end of all the strife,
And when that final day comes
And death grips it's hand around my neck
Squeezing, Squeezing harder still,
All the pain inside I feel
Will all simply disappear
I have nothing left to fear
For I have received life's greatest reward!

--ME

adysav

Why must there be a purpose? It is the unfortunate but inevitable fate of a body that cannot regenerate itself indefinitely.
I don't believe we were designed to die, or in fact designed at all.
Can you imagine spending all of eternity as a bed wetting cripple with amnesia?
Do I get a score out of 10? Death is just an event like any other. Both life and death are insignificant.

ARTelevision

everything else dies.
we are no different.
it doesn't concern me.
I have some natural curiousity about death.
that's about it.

__________________
create evolution

Suave

I personally have no take on "why" death occurs, because I think it's outside the ability of myself to explain or understand. Going with the best philosophy I can though, death exists because all things are transient. Death is constant throughout life though, in that your personality and mentality are in a state of constant rebirth, held together by the slender strand of memory. Your cells are constantly dying, and by the time you completely fail biologically, none of you is the same as who you were born as, or who you graduated highschool as. Death also creates an amazing opportunity for intense insight, and the best opportunity for full enlightenment.

asaris

Death exists because, while some human beings are on a path of enlightenment, most are on the other path. That is, everyone is either becoming a better person or a worse person, and most people are becoming worse people. So death is a mercy to the world, to stop people from continually getting worse. It is not how we were designed, it is a consequence of our choice not to follow God. Death is, then, both a good and a bad thing. It is a rest, a surcease of our existence in a world where life is suffering. But it's not the way things were meant to be.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

inharmony

We begin dying from the moment we are born. Therefore, live each day to the fullest as it could be your last. I don't fear it. I do believe without death we couldn't have life. Just my opinions.

__________________
"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist."
Ghandi

"Things do not change: We change"
Henry David Thoreau

Master_Shake

We die because after we pass on our genetic information we serve no further purpose for the species. Our bodies don't maintain themselves as well and eventually it stops functioning.

I suppose it's bad for me because it will be the end of me, but it will be good for others because then I will discontinue using resources which may be used by the younger versions.

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You know something, I don't think the sun even... exists... in this place. 'Cause I've been up for hours, and hours, and hours, and the night never ends here.

ravenradiodj

Life and death are natural cycles of existence, like the seasons. As children of Mother Earth, we are no different. Our physical bodies are born, live, and die. But science tells us that matter simply changes form. All the cells that will make up the grey hairs on your head when you are old already exist in some form, biding their time. All matter continues on endelssly. Energy is no different. Energy may dissipate and travel, but it never ceases to be. Can spiritual energy be any different? Can, then, our soul or spirit, that thing that is "us" that lives in and manipulates our physical body, be immune to these natural laws that all other atoms and molecules and waves in the universe observe? It's foolishness and/or arrogance to think so. My Native American brothers tells me that the Great Spirit is in everything, you, me, mountains, rocks, clouds, animals, microbes, everything. You may "die", but all that is "you" continues, eventually returning here, or perhaps elsewhere, to work out your karma, or remaining on a spiritual plane to guide or educate others by various means. At least, these are the beliefs that my lifelong search for truth and meaning has led me to. I can only go with what my intellect, intuition, and instincts tell me, I have no other tools available to me. Nor do you. The one thing you cannot transcend isa your own experience. At best, the only thing we can say for sure is that there appears to be such a thing as consciousness. In the end, your path may differ from mine, but if we are all spiritually awake, it doesn't really matter how we got there, or what name we gave our God(s)/Goddess(es)/Whatever.

martinguerre

turning 20...i had a rather large freak out about this. between 1/5 to 1/4 of my life was over. at best. yikes.

i don't think about it much these days. i've made a pretty good run of it so far, and people would show up at my funeral.

theologically...i'm less concerned with death as an abstract fear. i don't fear my eventual departure from this planet in that way. i don't have time. there's enough death going on here to be concerned about. i think of all the people who live death filled lives, chained by poverty, homelessness, addiction, broken relationships...

death doesn't wait for the end of a person's life.

The Magic

To be or not to be....

I tend to see my death as a bad thing. I don't believe in an after life of any sort -- there could be one, I don't know. I enjoy living so I'd rather not die~ If I could, I would live forever (assuming of course that normal human aging does not proceed...I don't want to spend a millenium rocking back and forth in a rocking chair)

I would think that if a person finds life valuable/important, death would be, maybe not equally, but certainlly important as well. Normally people who don't care about living tend to not care if they die.

What does death serve for? Who knows? Change perhaps? If we did not die, then why would we reproduce? If we didn't reproduce, change would come very slowly, and maybe even eventually stop.

CatharticWeek

Death exists so the less genetically favorable creatures can be removed and the species evolves better to face the changing environment.
That's my biological interpretation of death, but to the average human today I would think it was somthing to be postponed and feared, but revered and almost looked forward to.
When I die, I want to be completely spent, having lived my life to the absolute fullest with long line of healthy happy family members to carry on my memory and image, at least for a while.