Isn't all this "It was just their time" stuff just something we invented...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

...to make our selves feel better when someone we love dies?
I think I've lost my faith...
Duckie

[Redstone]

1. Yes, it is.

Redstone

[WindRavenX]

2. yup

It's a major cop-out.

[Burma Jones]

3. When you're powerless I suppose it's better to ascribe things to fate

Maybe there is a way to will people into immortality...but we don't know it yet.

[Nevernose]

4. Nope. Everyone goes eventually.

I take my "wisdom" from GK's A Prairie Home Companion, in which he writes, "It's not a tragedy when an old man dies."

Faith in an afterlife? THAT's something we invented (at least on my atheist days).

[Kutjara]

5. Yup, just another empty platitude.

But then everything that's said when someone dies is pretty much the same. It's all part of our extreme discomfort with death. Every wake I've been to has been a foot-shuffling affair at which everyone mills around, mumbling the same "what a shame," "he was so young," "at least it was quick" tripe.

Incidentally, I always wondered if a massive increase in appetite was a sign of impending death. My confusion stems from the number of people I hear say, when talking about a newly-dead acquaintance, "I can't believe he's dead. I just had lunch/dinner with him last week." Add all these meals up and it's easy to see why they died: they must have exploded.