Stephen Cave broke up the way we see death or rather conquering death in four sections.
Elixir – Mr. Cave described how since the beginning of existence we have created a potion in order to conquer death. We have always thought of the fountain of youth as something silly that is a story we have been told time and time again. It is not that bizarre when we think about how in society we are constantly taking pills to look younger, have more energy, and get aroused at a moments notice when we are older (just not longer than 4 hours). These are nothing but modern day elixirs.
Resurrection – In the Religious nation that we live in we are very familiar with the idea of resurrection. We have been told all our lives that when we die we either ride the existential elevator up or down.
Soul – A soul is also something that is familiar to most religious people. Once you die your spirit, soul, or essence does not go away.
Legacy – This is the idea that even when you die, you can be a part of something greater. A cause or team or possibly something that you accomplished. It depends of what your actions are that decide what your legacy is. Both Jesus and Hitler had legacies that will live on forever.
Ancient Egyptians believed that if a body is wrapped in fine linens and a particular ceremony were to take place this would allow them passage to the afterlife. This would be similar to the soul that we are used to hearing about.
We generally think of a legacy in terms of military battles. I immediately thought of the movie Starship Troopers. This was a movie about a distopian future where giant bugs were the enemy and the military were the good guy defenders. In this scene the commander said, “Come on you apes, don’t you want to live forever”. He was talking about not only their legacy, but their survival of their species.Starship Troopers
I found Mr. Cave’s analogy of a book to be very insightful. He explained how the beginning was your birth and the end was your death. We always say that death is a part of life when this is not the case. In fact death is apart from life.
Happy Halloween everyone!
Hum 115: World Mythology 
So if death is apart from life and is it’s own entity, what is birth?
Yet, if death is a part of life, does that make birth a separate entity?
I am confused with your post, you agree with life is a like a book; birth life and death… yet death is not a part of the equation? which is it?
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Eric’s post reminded me of the “curse of immortality” trope that we see frequently in stories. So much of of our energy, both as individuals and as a culture, is devoted to defeating non-existence in some manner, whether is be by keeping our brain in a jar or telling stories about figures, like Osiris and Orpheus, who have managed to go to and return from the underworld. But if we really do take death out of the equation, then we lose a crucial way to understand and experience life. So many stories (the first Pirates of the Caribbean is coming to mind) contain immortal beings wishing they could finally die because the world had no joy for them anymore.
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