I am never afraid of what I know.

Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

sooo...
that means that...
if I KNOW that sooner or later I should die,
then I am supposed not to be afraid of death... ??

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lightly

never afraid? I suspect that if her doc told her that the consumption or pneumonia or influenza she had was incurable her heart might just skip a little beat

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"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon" Suzanne Ertz

I don't know. She's dead, so I can't ask. Personally, I never know what I'll be afraid of. I met Erma Bombeck once without knowing her and it wasn't scary. However, death is scary. I've heard about death, and I've seen it once or twice...It's scary! There's got to be a better way to lose weight.

The lady was not to complicated.
First her mother and her primary teacher was likely a very well grounded person.(i.e. a cool lady.)
Someone teaching a "crippled" person that their knowledge is their freedom is as good as it gets.
A very loving family, a lot of moving and carriage rides and mother and teacher who was writing kids books, produces a person that would say something like this is a not a deep thought for me.
This lady would be in heaven today
More than likely living some where between San Fransisco and Vancouver with a long list of human,animal,and plant rights on her desk some where between her Bible and her mother earth news.
Knowledge IS freedom ..teach your children well, we may write about you a 100 years later. R.C.

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Read to your kid they will read with you,re neighbors kid
It is not the crazy people you worry about ....It is the one,s that don,t know it!

Here's something I didn't know yesterday. It's not scary, but interesting: "...research has repeatedly found that when we hold a [facial] expression for a little while [such as a smile], we start to feel happy. The physiological changes in the face seem to induce biochemical changes associated with the corresponding emotion. Smiling and laughter, for instance, increase blood flow to the brain, which helps produce a heightened sense of well-being. Likewise, when we see people grieving, our faces take on their expressions and we undergo the same changes in heart rate and brain activity as people suffering true sorrow." - Coniff, R., Men's Health, April, 2009.

Now, this really doesn't have much to do with today's quote, but I felt like throwing another tidbit in...Being happy is a lot more optional than we think. Humor is a panacea to whatever ails you, and laughter, the best medicine.

I believe that quotes, as are all other matters of expression (poetry, art, music, literature, style of dress, etc...) are to each person different, based upon countless subjective elements, known only to that individual.

Additionally, to read a few words, without any additional context, is an invitation for the reader to dig a bit deeper, and then to provide some commentary.

The reverse, or the absence of having sought additional insight, I believe makes us (not her, as Geeman says), "look a little foolish."

I think mood/attitude govern fear as much as knowing, or being unfamiliar, with things. If you're in a good mood, you're less likely to be fearful - which could be good or bad, depending on whether your a three year-old reaching into a lion's cage, or an eighteen year-old on a first date with Miss America...On the other hand, fear isn't necessarily a bad thing, though it does stifle potential possibilities. Most of us fear too much.

We fear something abstract, unreal, since we always fear something that hasn't happened yet.
A negative experience, once already happened, or while it is happening, might cause pain, sadness... but never fear! Fear comes before that experience to happen, when we still have the possibility to change the future and make it not happen.
The biggest thing that we cannot avoid anyway is death. That's why we associate all fears to death.

Fear corresponds to insecurity and to doubt: that's why we talk about fear of God too.
Now I come to a strong personal opinion that I don''t even know if it is really my final one:
"God" is probably a word that we created to substitute the words "fear", since this one was not enough for us, and we needed to personalise it as if it was our creator.
And we decided to believe in this word, as if it was our security, when it is our doubt.

We define God, so to define something you have to get the definition from words, facts, things you already know. If you define something it means it is comprehensible and part of this world and therefore very tangible, human. Like when we say "don't Goddify that". The feeling "to goddify" can't be but a normal very human and very common feeling, since it is our own feeling and it doesn't come from the space. We want to call it unhuman, but if we think about that, where does it come from? Something that we ourselves "wrote"!

In any case I have a lot of respect for those who believe "God created us" instead of believing, like me, that "we created God". I respect them because they found an easy way to get security from doubt and fear... that I can't. All I can see when I Goddify or what is my associations, my ideas, my past, me.

Well, I'm getting confused myself... better re-reading what I wrote tomorrow morning.

Goodnight everybody, and don't let the bed bugs bite. :)

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lightly

What is she never afraid of?

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Love love love love coco nuts~~! I I I I Island~~!

Surely you do know that you will die, we all die, of that we can be sure. Yet you don't, presumably, face each day debilitated by the fear of that fact. Do / did you fear the time before you were alive?



Is it not the unknown consequence of a stroke or autoimmune disease that you fear. Once afflicted a person doesn’t fear the current condition –suffer, regret, mourn, etc. but not fear-- hence, not afraid of what one knows.




Exactly.



I see what you’re saying, but I can’t agree ‘taking the easy way’ is worthy of respect. Hiding under the duvet may allay the fear of the monster in the wardrobe, but it is better to know the monster does not, in fact, exist. The trouble with filling the gaps in our understanding with ‘god’, is that when new knowledge, contradictory knowledge, is presented the gaps / role for god lessen. For most this is not an easy thing to let go. Mankind has a tendency to favour comfortable ignorance over (often stark) reality. Apart from encouraging ignorance as a virtue, this results in conflict and manipulation as well. I believe this trait will be the eventual downfall of our civilisation.

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Arguing with a creationist is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll knock over the pieces, crap on the board, and fly back to it's flock to claim victory.

This is certainly contrary to the adage "ignorance is bliss."

I've got to say.....totally off topic......I absolutely love that LOVE LOVE LOVE coconuts thing from Bomber.......I actually laugh every single time I see it, because I realize that I've just reflexively read it, again, in it's entirety. Thanks for the true humour!