Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has made it clear that the strong survive to reproduce while the weak die off and are driven to extinction. One of the characteristics of living things that is the same with all living things is fear of death. Just as reproduction, movement, etc, are necessary for a living thing to survive, fear of death is also a neccesity. Simply put, death is not an uncomfortable sensation, in terms of seeing death as the absence of consciousness and virtual non-existence. Yet if living things did not fear death, or evolve to best avoid death, then life would cease to exist. Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an eminent English naturalist who achieved lasting fame by convincing the scientific community that species develop over time from a common origin. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

This can lead to the conclusion that fear of death, or avoidance of death, is simply an evolutionary mechanism present since the first instance of life on earth. Life is 'programmed' with fear of death from the moment of creation, and the purely primal 'meaning of life' would be to avoid death as long as possible. This is visible in animals where it seems that avoidance of death is their primary goal.

This leads to the conclusion that fear of death is a result of evolution, and is the driving force behind life. Without fear of death life would not be able to exist, as living things seeing non-existence as unimportant would simply cease their life functions and die.

See also

• Mortality
• Necrophobia