by Don Hildenbrand

Created on: January 28, 2009

To boldly go where no one has never gone before! Or, in this case, perhaps it's more accurate to say; to not so boldly go where billions of humans have gone. It's the real final frontier. It's truly the undiscovered country. It's what we call death. And it's easy to fear it.

Ever since the first human beings began to become aware of their own mortality, and wondered at what came next, death has been on the minds of many, and one of the chief fears of many. One of our greatest fears is the fear of the unknown, and truly, death is the great unknown. It's the great fear that we do our best to not think about. It's the ultimate "invisible" pink elephant in the room, that everyone sees, but no one wants to acknowledge. Maybe many of us try to have the same attitude as Woody Allen; "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

But we are afraid of death. It's natural, and it's normal. There are many through the history of the world that have truly overcome that fear, but for most of us, it's there, it's real, and it's right in our faces.

How do we overcome the fear of death? If death is the great unknown, and our greatest fear is of the unknown, then we can lessen our fear of death by removing a great deal of the unknown.

There are, at the core, only three options of what may happen when we die. But, before we explore those three options, let's remove a fourth, one that for some, will immediately spring to mind. Let's remove the fear of hell.

Many religions which believe in an afterlife have, as a part of their belief system, a belief in a place of eternal punishment for those who are either evil, not a part of their religion, or both. For many religions this place is known as hell, or some variation on the theme.

These religions have this belief because their sacred book tells them that it's real, and because they accept the authority of their sacred book, they believe it's real. But, the reality is, those who accept the authority of their sacred book don't need to worry about hell, because, generally speaking, they embrace the religious teachings of that book, and therefore don't have to worry about going to hell. On the other hand, those who reject the authority of the sacred books do not believe in hell simply because someone's book tells them they must. So, in not believing in hell, they also don't have to worry about going there.

And, since almost every major religion in the world teaches that everyone who is not a member of their religion

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