Are there benefits to being a zombie?

[blind2d]

I just thought of it! If you're a zombie, you can have underwater wrestling with sharks! That's a cool power. Some nice flowers. - Rorshach

[Rancid Carcass]

The biggest advantage of being a zombie (if you can call it that), this simply not having to worry about being eaten alive every minute of the every day. Though underwater shark wrestling does run it a very close second! I believe that once your body is a zombie, "you" aren't there anymore anyways. As for issue of 'not being there', I think part of the horror of the zombie threat is that you are still there, vaguely, after revival. I always assumed that was part of the reason why they go to shopping malls or try to 'drive a car down Independence Avenue' - a sort of dim and hazy recollection of the things they used to do in life. Logan touched upon it in DAY surmising that Bub was remembering how to use things 'from before'. It also explains why Big Daddy would come out to fill the gas tank every time the little bell went, and is also the reason why people (with the exception of Cholo!), don't want to come back after they kick the bucket. From any point of view, both Christian and Atheist, if zombies are just empty shells of rotting meat then it doesn't really matter what happens after you die – the only thing you'd have to worry about is being eaten, and if you don't survive then so what? You're not there. You're either sat on a fluffy white cloud strumming a harp or have completely ceast to exist, the nightmare's over. To me part of the horror of the zombie apocalyse is that there is no escaping from it, even in death.

[krakenslayer]

From a Christian perspective, death is the separation of the soul from the body. If the zombie is dead, the soul isn't there anymore. It's in heaven, hell, limbo, purgatory etc. depending on the condition of the person (and which denomination is right ). The zombie lurches on as a soulless flesh-robot. Is the zombie dead, though? Dead is just an easy tag to stick on them, but dead things do not (by their very definition) walk around or continue to function in any way. A better definition would be undead. Undeath was a state that our superstitious and deeply religious ancestors feared greatly, because they believed the soul was trapped, either on its own or within a corrupted body, in Earthly torment. When they dealt with those alleged to be vampires and werewolves (usually by burning), they believed they were releasing the soul from it's undead body, and bringing the victim rest. I don't see why zombies would be any different.

[darth los]

it's called "new years day." it was an episode of "fear itself", which is what "masters of horror" was renamed when it was bought by NBC. alas, NBC quickly screwed the pooch on the show and it is no more. Geez, thanks man. I was having a hell of a time tracking it down. I had it on my dvr until it broke and I had to get a new box.

[Publius]

Undeath was a state that our superstitious and deeply religious ancestors feared greatly, because they believed the soul was trapped, either on its own or within a corrupted body, in Earthly torment. Good point!

[Wyldwraith]

My point exactly, Normal death (IMO) releases the essence of what makes the individual unique to go on to wherever one happens to believe that essence goes on to (In my case, Heaven or Hell). Undeath on the other hand is like a metaphysical monkey wrench in this process. The essence/soul gets clogged up in the fleshy constraints, and suffers endless misery until released. This is why zombies are far more pitiable creatures than several varieties of vampires. It's one thing to have your immortal soul trapped in an equally immortal, conditionally invulnerable, and equipped with a host of neat supernatural abilities body, and quite another to have your soul stuck in a quagmire of a rotting fleshbag that's controlled by an overwhelming hunger for living human flesh. Given my metaphysical beliefs, I would feel that I was doing a fellow human being one of the greatest services that could be done for another person by destroying their brain if they were a zombie. Far from being a grisly and horrific burden, it would be a noble releasing of that person's very being from its rotting prison. You couldn't save their life, but saving them from being a helpless witness to their body perpetrating horrific crimes on other human beings for God knows how long is a big thing. If zombies ever existed, that is. Not saying I could be all blase about it, and smile as I gunned down half a dozen zombie children, but I feel that my conviction on the subject would be a great comfort to me under those circumstances. The people I feel TRULY sorry for aren't the zombies though. I feel the sorriest for an atheist that believes in the existence of the soul, but believes it perishes with the body. If such a person was put in a position where they had to destroy a zombie to protect themselves or someone else, how horrible would that be? Choosing between the survival of your own unique identity and extinguishing someone else's....