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We know and fear death because we know life, and we understand and love life better only because we know of death. Life without death would probably just be.. mere existence. A void. Sheer monotony. Just like it is with emotions and feelings, we understand and realize the good only because we can compare and contrast it with the bad. We treasure happiness only because we can identify and differentiate it from sadness. Similarly, love for life and fear of death are two faces of the same coin, neither can exist independent of the other. We love life, our OWN life and life around us, and we cherish it because we know of the inevitable stop to our existence death will bring us. All of us value things so much more when we know the happiness we get from it is ephemeral and is prone to self-destruction. We feel a need to make the most of whatever we have in the best way possible, specially when what we've got is not.. eternal, because if it WERE eternal, we probably would end up taking it for granted, and not give it as much importance. But since we know life ultimately, inevitably ends in death, we enjoy every moment, and value life. However, having said this, it is also important to mention that we fear death only because we're so.. attached to and deeply involved in our lives. For a person not enamored my life, for someone who doesn't notice the beauty of everyday things, the warmth of the sun, the chill of the winter breeze etc, for someone not in love with life, death probably wouldn't be that serious an occurrence. We fear death BECAUSE we love life, and we love life BECAUSE we fear death. This again reminds me of the discussion we had.. ages ago, and again today, in class about the cyclic nature of everything in science--from patterns in evolution to the very fundamental question of what science is--everything travels a circular trajectory. There is never a definite beginning or a definite end.