Do I believe in the grim reaper as it were? No, not in the way that most people picture him, but perhaps if it were more than one object. In my section about my religious beliefs, I talk about how I think people die, and perhaps Sin does have the appearance of the Reaper when he is whole. But other than that I do not see a single Reaper, but I have thought many times that perhaps there are separate entities that push themselves into a persons body when it is that person's time to go. I pictured maybe figures completely enshrouded in black, appearing much like shadows, just clawing into the person's spirit until it pushed itself out of the body. Those were the beliefs I used to hold, a couple years back.
I heard from somewhere else (I forget where now) that the person died when their spirit was through with this world, and that explains why there is often times a look of peace on a person's face. I just like this theory because it's a romantic view of death, if you really picture it. The silvery spirit pressing itself out of the body, it just seems so . . .I don't know . . .beautiful to me.
The theory of the Reaper/Death is the scariest to me. Something coming for me to claim my soul and bring it to some place I don't have any idea where is isn't very comforting.. There was a book I read in eighth grade about a Mr. Brown, comparable to death, that would come to you when you were ready to die. He was so cold and yet comforting at the same time, and it just really freaked me out. The rest of the story went that he got tricked into this tree that you couldn't get out of if this man did not tell him he could, because Mr. Brown was had come to bring the man into death. If anyone touched the tree that housed death, he would die. So Mr. Brown tricked the man's grandson into hopping this fence to get to the tree, and the kid broke his back. This would normally kill the kid, but since Mr. Brown was caught in the tree, he couldn't die, but was in extreme pain. When the man saw his grandson in agonizing pain, he let Mr. Brown down from the tree and let himself and his grandson be brought to the afterlife. I liked that story when I read it and still do.
There's also the simplest explaination. Disease and physical deterioration of the body. The atheists' theory is the simplest to explain. The body loses the ability to reproduce healthy cells quickly enough. Other causes include cutting off of blood to areas of the body, too many viral infected cells, loss of brain activity, and no air sent to parts of the body.
