Book III of De Rerum Natura, Lucretius notes that death would be something that does matter so much to the life of an individual in case it could be clear that mind is mortal stuff. However, people are always concerned because they are sure that there is no life after death. He argues that when people die, the body and the soul, which are the two important components of a human being, are separated.
Therefore, nothing can happen to an individual once he or she is dead because he or she is actually not there. Under such a scenario, nothing can move a human being even if the earth and the sea mixed into one (Lucretius 800). He further argues that it does not matter so much even if the mind and the soul feel anything after death because the thing that brings the human system together (body) is not there.
It would be of no sense if time recollects matter once more after death and puts life in it after death because the original line of recollection had already been broken. After death, it is not important to know who we are. Moreover, people should not even worry about what their body would go through after death because they would not be present to feel anything. In his analysis, he notes that life has been interrupted meaning that all the wandering movements occur far away from the human mind.
If a man is to suffer evil, he or she should face it when alive, but not when dead and long gone. Misfortunes cannot happen to a dead person because death eliminates from the scene the one on whom misfortunes congregate. This implies that an individual should not fear anything that will come after death because he would not feel it.
When immortal death takes mortal life, it is compared to a scenario where birth did not take place. Lucretius advised that people should be rational in their thinking and stop pretending that they care about what will happen to them after death.
Some people complain about the conditions of their bodies after death because they would be subjected to inhuman conditions such as being left in the bush for wild beasts to feed on, being left to rot, and being destroyed by flames. Such individuals are not genuine because they do not admit what they profess given the fact that they know well that they would be insensible after death.
From Lucretius analysis, it is true that human bodies are inseparable from the mind. This is because the body is the custodian of the brain implying that an organ cannot exist without the system. In fact, this is the reason why people lament that beasts would feed their bodies yet they would not be there to defend themselves.
An individual would not be present to complain when the body is destroyed or burn to mean that even the mind would not be there. He notes, “In real death, there would be no second self alive to regret that the first self was dead or to stand by while the corpse is bitten or burnt.” Even if there would be a second life, Lucretius is of the view that there would be no children and the family to share feelings with after death.
In this view, the mind is inseparable with the body because death destroys everything, even happiness. In some instances, Lucretius notes, “nobody misses himself or the life he leads when both his mind and body have fallen asleep (804).”
Works Cited
Lucretius, Carus. The Way Things Are. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1993. Print.