Death is perhaps THE most important starting subject for philosophical discussion because it IS both so important to us and so paradoxical. It is paradoxical JUST because it IS in fact so important to us and yet so utterly NON-paradoxical. It seems weird to think of oneself dead, but that is totally illogical - our NORMAL STATE is non-existence: Life is just a temporary blip in the time-continuum.

A) On the one hand Death is totally and absolutely banal. All things live and die, as we know from a very young age and can see all around us, including with our own friends and families. Death is something children should be taught - in a gentle way. One such way is with small pets: a hamster lives a maximum of 3 years, so the child will love it but see it die. It isn’t pleasant, but how COULD it be? It IS, however, the way of the universe.

LIFE is an anomaly in the universe. NON-EXISTENCE is the norm. Indeed, Life is so astonishing that the word “miracle” could be used in its non-religious sense. That is in fact a statement of the bleedin’ obvious - but it is far from obvious to several billion people on the planet who prefer fantasy.

B) On the other hand, DEATH is HORRIBLE. There is no getting round that. It is really horrible if a parent loses a child or indeed vice versa - or even if one learns about the death of someone one never knew but loved anyway. I never knew Anne Frank, but thinking of her can bring me to tears, not just because of the thought of her bones lying somewhere cold and dark but because she is the symbol of the millions of other innocents who died in the Holocaust. The deaths of many others touches me almost daily. Jesus Christ (whom I believe existed and whom one could and perhaps should love without the supernatural bit), Carol Lombard, Buddy Holly, Karen Carpenter, JFK, Lee Remick, Patrick Swayze, Lillian Board, Vetas Gerulaitis, Richard Beckinsale and many others including my former schoolteachers: the knowledge that they no longer breathe is painful, even if logically it should not be.

Logically, there IS no Life without Death. "Death is the price we pay for Life", just as "Grief is the price we pay for Love". But in this area logic fails. Death really IS so horrible that we would do anything to avoid it - and so “RELIGION” was invented, whose principal idea is that “God” can grant us eternal Life - and INVENTED is the right word, for there is no proof whatsoever of some kind of “God” watching over us that would stand up in court.

Religion was indeed invented to pretend that Death does not mean eternal non-existence, and it is somewhat staggering to think that the VAST panoply of religion, the practices, the hideous wars, the subversion of Freedom of all kinds is based on fantasy. Those with a faith will claim otherwise, but if you believe in philosophy then THEY HAVE TO PROVE IT, and FOR ME THERE IS NO PROOF WHATSOEVER. The LIES of religion are indeed comforting - and thus seductive: almost ALL of us would prefer to live forever - but that is not how the universe works - certainly not how living things work. Religious people go to fantastic lengths of rationalization to explain away things impossible to understand. We are supposed to have “Original Sin” because Adam ate an apple? Seriously? THAT is supposed o explain why a little girl in my school was run over and killed on a pedestrian crossing? It was Adam’s fault? It was “God’s” will? Even aged 6 I knew this was BS - but millions believe this BS to the point where they no longer use evidence, logic and reasoning. Worse, they lose their humanity to the point where they believe that their fantasy entitles them (indeed COMMANDS them) to murder other humans who do not share it.

Robin Williams was right: Carpe Diem - Live your live to the full - enjoy the moment, work hard to prepare enjoyable future moments, for Life is a “miraculous” phenomenon, an immense privilege and an aberration of the Universe. Regarding that, to this day NO CONVINCING PROOF OF LIFE ELSEWHERE in the Universe has ever been presented. People would LOVE to have proof of life elsewhere (SO MUCH SO that they often invent it), but THERE IS NONE THAT WOULD STAND UP IN COURT - only STATISTICAL PROBABILITY - but that is not enough for me. Once you start believing in things that COULD in theory be true but for which there is no actual evidence then you have abandoned Reason. The Legal Process does not operate that way, so why should WE when considering the fundamental mysteries of our lives and the Universe?

The bottom line? A religious faith is cowardice; we should accept Death for what it is - the end of a miracle. It is (illogically) sad, but Life is indeed OFTEN sad. "Sadness is the price we pay for Happiness ......."

"Before death takes away what you are given, give away what there is to give." – Rumi

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily." – Napoleon

"If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It is not length of life, but depth of life." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75." – Benjamin Franklin

"I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived." – Willa Cather

"To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent." – Buddha

"There’s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now." – Angelina Jolie

"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are." – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"A culture that denies death inevitably becomes shallow and superficial, concerned only with the external form of things. When death is denied, life loses its depth." – Eckhart Tolle

“I have no choice of living or dying, you see, Sir – but I do have a choice of how I do it." – John Steinbeck

"Excess of grief for the dead is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not." –

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." - Marcus Aurelius Xenophon

“The best way to live is to live Life to the full, never to think of Death and then to die one painlessly night in your sleep. That way you will never fear death nor indeed ever know that it happened.” - Chris Snuggs

"The pain of someone's death is felt by other people - not the one who dies, and it is the same for stupidity,"