The 4 stories we tell ourselves about death

Stephen Cave: The 4 Stories we Tell Ourselves about Death

Reminding people of death biases them to believe, regardless of the evidence, and it works out not just for religion, but for any kind of belief system that promises immortality in some form, whether it’s becoming famous or having children, or even nationalism, which promises you can live on as part of a greater whole. This is a bias that has shaped the course of human history.

The theory behind this bias is called terror management theory, and the idea is simple. We develop our worldviews ,that is, the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it, in order to help us manage the terror of death. These immortality stories have thousands of different manifestations but behind the apparent diversity there are perhaps just four basic forms that these immortality stories can take.

4 Basic Kinds of Immortality Stories

1.Elixir 长生不老药

2.Resurrection

3.Soul

4.Legacy: the idea that you can live on through the echo you leave in the world. The pursuit of fame…children, or they hope to live on as a part of a greater whole, a nation or a family or a tribe, their gene pool.

The question is: are we doomed to lead the one life we have in a way that is shaped by fear and denial, or can we overcome this bias?

The Greek philosopher Epicurus thought we could. He argued that the fear of death is natural, but is not rational.

“Death is nothing to us, because when we are here, death is not, and when death is here, we are gone.”— Epicurus (BC342-270) 伊比鸠鲁（古希腊杰出唯物主义和无神论者）