Fear and Trembling and Disgust

A priest wrote that some people ask him not to talk about death because "it is too depressing." But he then continues that "being scared of death is astonishingly far from the Christian tradition." (New Scientist, 10/13/07)

Could it be, then that people sometimes use the word "depressing" as a substitute for "scary?" They do not admit, even to themselves, that they are afraid. And even when the say they find the thought of death "depressing," they may not mean depression in a clinical sense such as an overwhelming feeling and sense of helplessness and hopelessness. Rather, they may be interpreting "depression" as an illness, which is itself disgusting, since illness or sickness is a violation of the purity of the body or of the "natural" state of health.

One common reaction to both fear and disgust is to flee. Such a bodily reaction may be a source of confusion between fear and disgust. This bodily reaction may have the same basic root, that of the avoidance of harm, the urgency and source of the provoking stimulus or event are different. A charging buffalo and a rotting corpse may both provoke flight, but the reasons are different as are their short-term consequences.