Adam Smith skriver i The Theory of Moral Sentiments (I.I.13) om hur det kommer sig att många känner en rädsla inför döden — därför att de inbillar sig att de som är döda bryr sig om det som händer efter dödens inträde. T.ex. att de blir bortglömda.

”We sympathize even with the dead, and overlooking what is of real importance in their situation, that awful futurity which awaits them, we are chiefly affected by those circumstances which strike our senses, but can have no influence upon their happiness. It is miserable, we think, to be deprived of the light of the sun; to be shut out from life and conversation; to be laid in the cold grave, a prey to corruption and the reptiles of the earth; to be no more thought of in this world, but to be obliterated, in a little time, from the affections, and almost from the memory, of their dearest friends and relations. … The happiness of the dead, however, most assuredly, is affected by none of these circumstances; nor is it the thought of these things which can ever disturb the profound security of their repose. … It is from this very illusion of the imagination, that the foresight of our own dissolution is so terrible to us, and that the idea of those circumstances, which undoubtedly can give us no pain when we are dead, makes us miserable while we are alive.”

Jag tror att det ligger mycket i detta. Vi har t.ex. svårt för att acceptera att vi är en liten parentes i universum eller i världens historia. Det mest negativa med en rädsla för döden anser jag vara att den utgör grund för religion.