Does Death Make Us Human?

Phil and Stephen discuss the question -- is death integral to our humanity?

They start with a look at a recent opinion piece at The New York Times:

Life Is Short. That’s the Point.

"Our mortality is not something to be overcome. It is integral to our humanity." 

Is this correct? Are we defined by our limitations?

Maybe. But we are also defined by other things, in part our ongoing struggle to overcome our limitations.

Interesting quote:

In her new book, “Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer,” Barbara Ehrenreich writes: “You can think of death bitterly or with resignation, as a tragic interruption of your life, and take every possible measure to postpone it. Or, more realistically, you can think of life as an interruption of an eternity of personal nonexistence, and seize it as a brief opportunity to observe and interact with the living, ever-surprising world around us.”

This is true, but on the other hand -- Death Sucks!

WT 470-788

Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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