Scared of the dark

Why do you think that it is basic Human instinct to be afraid of the dark?
Sure, in the medieval times, nature was much more dangerous, but in modern society, there is less in the dark and less murderings.

Because millions of years of evolutionary pressure aren’t going to be overcome in a few thousand years.

I’m not afraid of the dark, I fear the evil that lurks within. It is the fear of the unknown, not the dark, we fear the unknown because it might hurt. It is a basic survival instinct.

DAMN TOOK MY Answer

I think about this a lot.:]

I’m afraid of the dark only in big places like a mall with a power out and its night out because I wouldn’t know what is around me.

When i’m in the country, I am not afraid of the dark because it is almost never pitch black and I tend to be with other people even if it is.

Were visual creatures, we rely on vision, were afraid of what we cant see.

Our ancestors hid in the dark because of the deadly predators that would hunt them at night. Not sure if that’s the reason but it’s the most logical reason.

cloud_9ine’s response reminds me of a line in “day of the triffids” it was about how all humanities achievement, was not because of the ability to think, but to correlate their thinking with vision. If someone could bring the exact quote that would be nice.

Yes we rely a lot on our vision. we rely on our other senses too but, we have much difficulty functioning without vision. This is possibly due to how we at one point started using our vision primarily. this weakened other senses cause they weren’t used as intensely.

We are megalomaniacs by nature.. So having no idea to our surroundings will always throw us off.

is murderings a word?

No you would say murders for the plural, now go away. For most creatures with eyes, sight is their main sense, this is because it is the most inclusive sense if there is light to see by. Other senses back sight up, or do minor things of their own, if you have ever seen a blind animal [eg. mexamatose rabbit] you will notice how impaired they are, darkness effectively blinds us, so could it be that also in darkness we cannot see a potential attacker. It all comes back to survival, y’see theo.

I am really really afraid of the dark because i read too many CreepyPasta’s once i was in the dark and i peed myself. .-.

Fear of the unknown. I’m afraid of the dark because I fear that there is something in it, or potentially something could rush out of it to try and kill me.

Perhaps we might find some reality on this issue were we to talk w/ a large number of BLIND ppl.
Ones BLIND since birth.
Ones BLIND after various years of being sighted.
My personal experience w/ those of total sightlessness is that they don’t really have such “fear”.
Of course, since they “experience” total darkness ALL OF THE TIME…
their other senses have developed a keenness usually much greater than the sighted.

Originally posted by karmakoolkid:

My personal experience w/ those of total sightlessness is that they don’t really have such “fear”.
Of course, since they “experience” total darkness ALL OF THE TIME…
their other senses have developed a keenness usually much greater than the sighted.

There is actually a very good reason for this. Their visual cortex doesn’t exist.

When these people were born, they had one same as everyone else does, but with no functional eyes to feed data into it, the neurons had nothing to do. So the other senses kept ‘borrowing’ these unused neurons, a few towers at a time, until there were none left to take.

This is why their other senses are much sharper – each one has a great many more neurons attached to processing it than normal – each has got vastly more computational power than normal, to sort out the fine gradients.

This is also why its so difficult to give sight to these people – unlike with someone who used to have sight, but lost it, there is no specialised area in the brain ready to receive and process visual data. It’s all gone, all been taken by other sections of the brain. The visual cortex’s framework has been completely dismantled by the brain itself, and there’s nothing there to deal with this new data stream.

So the brain has to learn how to integrate it, starting over, completely from scratch, by repurposing neurons that aren’t doing anything in other areas of the brain, and having them work together to try and figure out what to do with this strange new data source.

Because you can’t see what’s there I think.

Originally posted by DerpyHoovez1337:

I am really really afraid of the dark because i read too many CreepyPasta’s once i was in the dark and i peed myself. .-.

Lol, I almost swallowed my tobaccy on that one. Seriously, you will grow out of it. When you are young you are defenseless, at least in your view of the world. You depend on mom and dad for everything, including safety. As you mature, you realize there isn’t anything in the dark that isn’t in the light.

Just repeat this every time you are caught in the dark: Yea thou I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil……because I’m the meanest sob in the valley!

I’ve never been afraid of dark or of anything in it. Bugs are another matter.

Originally posted by jhco50:

Originally posted by DerpyHoovez1337:

I am really really afraid of the dark because i read too many CreepyPasta’s once i was in the dark and i peed myself. .-.

Lol, I almost swallowed my tobaccy on that one. Seriously, you will grow out of it. When you are young you are defenseless, at least in your view of the world. You depend on mom and dad for everything, including safety. As you mature, you realize there isn’t anything in the dark that isn’t in the light.

Just repeat this every time you are caught in the dark: Yea thou I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil……because I’m the meanest sob in the valley!

Good one

I’m not afraid of the dark, i actually like it more than light.

The answer has been posted, for most people it is the fear of the unknown, it also does not help if one has an overreactive imagination as they then begin to create scenarios and dangers in their head. Generally triggering the fight or flight response.

Originally posted by Warbossjackjack:

I’m not afraid of the dark, I fear the evil that lurks within. It is the fear of the unknown, not the dark, we fear the unknown because it might hurt. It is a basic survival instinct.

Winner Winner chicken dinner!