Consider the following

I've seen lions at the zoo before. They are a kind of scary-fun conglomerate. Lion's at the zoo, as they are caged, are much more fun than scary and there business is specifically to be our entertainment. A couple of years ago I was in Africa. I was specifically in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. We were out on Safari sitting on the roof of a bumpy van. We rounded a corner and beheld jewels of the savanna, a lioness and her two cubs. Our bus driver was a little nutty and decided drive the bus within 15 feet of the mother lion. I remember seeing the lioness bear her fangs and make a guttural sound, this was more on the side of scary and less on the side of fun. The lioness was 15 feet from our van and we were sitting on top of the van like 5 meat-cicles waiting to be devoured. I thought I might be able to kick the lioness in the face if she jumped up here for a meal. I also thought I might be able to kick one of my team-mates off the top and avoid being chomped on myself. Thankfully the lioness was not in the eating mood.

There is an instinctual urge for survival. In response to my last post that instinctual urge for survival is not the same as a fear of death. Again an atheist would say religion is created to medicate the instinctual fear of death. This is untrue.

My instincts only alert my fear sensors when I have first learned that I should be afraid of something. The pack-herd element of my desire is not overwhelming. Herd animals have instinct because they lack the cognitive ability to make complex decision. To argue on evolutionary grounds (which would be like fencing on a Lilly-pad), we do not have the same need for herd thought as we have a more highly developed level of cognition. While a migratory bird might fly away at the sound of a rattler, my child may be drawn to that sound, especially if he likes rattles. He has not been taught to fear snakes and having no instinctual fear he is therefore not afraid of snakes. We fear death without ever being told what it is, for none of us know exactly what it is.

I have natural, biological desires. I have the desire to eat. But if I go without food I am not scared of missing the process of eating. I have the desire for water. But after going without water I am not afraid of not drinking, I am afraid of dying. Here there is something to be said for having a natural desire to be alive. In an evolutionary sense (back on the pad) we as creatures would need a desire to live to function at all. This is where we diverge. A desire to live is not the same as fear of death. I could have a strong desire for a basketball, it may even be so strong that I will run onto a court and wrestle to the ground a basketball player and viciously bite his hand until he releases the ball and I walk off with it. It would be in an evolutionary sense better for me to have no fear of death rather a unbelievably strong drive or urging to live.

My point is this. Humanity has a fear of death. Our fear of death is irrational. Our fear of death does not come from herd instinct. Our fear of death as cited in the previous blog, does not primarily come from the fear of the unknown.

One time I thought I had poison Ivy. I went to the doctor and said hey doc can you give me something for this poison ivy? He said, that's not poison Ivy it's shingles. I was at once relieved and frustrated. Relieved because I knew what it was and frustrated that it was so severe. The doctor continued to tell me how long it could be around and why it was painful and why it was in such a specific pattern. From my perspective the anomaly was clarified and although it remained potent I could rightly, in my mind put it into it's proper category.

The concept of death is often like that for many people. They can recognize it and may even falsely diagnose it, there is a Hebrew's 9 (it is granted one time to live then the judgment) feeling about the patch on our souls. The stripe remains in obscurity until someone who knows what it is can accurately describe it. When it is described we can reckon with it, unless we think we know more than the Doctor (in our day many of us do).

In our Christianity we are able to be healed of shingles and one could declare, O death where is your sting, O grave where is your victory. The judgment becomes a judgment of righteousness.
We are with the writer of Psalm one, standing before a righteous judgment where we are rewarded and not condemned.