Though I'm an atheist myself I've come to understand the emotional and philosophical wisdom behind many religious traditions. I've also thought about the powerfull sentiment in the "sacrificial love" posited by by the Christian faith. To identify oneself with a goal to the point of wagering one's life on it, as many parents would do for the survival of their children or on your example of a "good death" is a powerful thing, but I wonder if it is not just another kind of stimuli, an experience with powerfull valence in the field of possible mental states, but just an experience nonetheless. In this sense, wouldn't this also make you a drugged skydiver, just jumping off a different plane, in the search of a different thrill?
Though I'm an atheist myself I've come to understand the emotional and philosophical wisdom behind many religious traditions. I've also thought about the powerfull sentiment in the "sacrificial love" posited by by the Christian faith. To identify oneself with a goal to the point of wagering one's life on it, as many parents would do for the survival of their children or on your example of a "good death" is a powerful thing, but I wonder if it is not just another kind of stimuli, an experience with powerfull valence in the field of possible mental states, but just an experience nonetheless. In this sense, wouldn't this also make you a drugged skydiver, just jumping off a different plane, in the search of a different thrill?