I would answer 'none of the above' to the poll because I don't accept the basic premise -- that all creatures will do anything to avoid death. According to my readings humans are the only species that understand that they will die. That's not to say that other species don't react to the death of another of their species -- even with what look like rituals. I believe the issue is that they recognize that the other is dead but it doesn't connect to any understanding that they will at some point also be dead. Now I will agree that animals don't want to get hurt and will avoid that. IF they understand that the situation could hurt them. But dogs will run into the street and deer will stand and look at a hunter siting in on them.

We are just DNA carriers. DNA wants to spread so it needs to keep us alive.

Fear of the unknown... Same reason the religious cons go over so well.

Einstein taught us that all matter is a form of energy, so since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, we have always existed and will always exist in some energy form.

No reason to think energy souls or entities don't exist, and quantum physics already tells us different dimensions exist.

"For physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." -Einstein

well, since we do NOT have life after death, it's kind of moot, isn't it?

g

All creatures? Only humans, and a subset thereof, believe in an afterlife. And even then, there remains in the minds of many, a good deal of doubt. Consider this: were it not for the instinct to fight in order to survive, we would not be here. It is easy, at times, to bask in the warmth and luxury of leisure, and to contemplate such ideas. But we are evolved from ancestors who dwelt in a world of continual predation, and whose every waking moment was dedicated to survival. Even if there were an afterlife, I hope that each one of us, when the time comes, would 'rage against the dying of the light.'

I answered "fear" but really when you think about it, the fear of death reflects total disbelief in an afterlife. People hope for an afterlife because they fear death, but they don't really expect it. If a person is truly convinced they are right with god, they'd be in a terrific hurry to be with god. They aren't though.

At some level, people know it's a vain hope and a silly expectation.

When you instead accept the fact of your own mortality, you make peace with it. It loses its ability to frighten or be an object of loathing. Rather than fixate on the finite nature of life, you embrace it and make the most of it.

Not sure all do avoid it. Not at the lower rungs of life. A little higher up, the male praying mantis cares more about sex and little about having his head bitten off and his insides consumed while continuing copulation.

Survival instinct.

Because you are on a mission from god to do more in this world, and you have more to do.

the selfish gene

the selfish gene