What you missed in my post above is this very critical point, i.e.
I have explained many times [in earlier posts above] there are two types of fear of death.
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The conscious fear of death
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The subconscious ‘fear of death’
My main focus is 2, i.e. The subconscious ‘fear of death.’
Your examples above, losing at chess, driving, etc. are all involving the conscious fear of death.
If one consciously fear death, that is a mental illness, i.e. THANATOPHOBIA. I have mentioned this many times, but most seem not to get it.
Nature has ensured ALL humans [as programmed] do not have a persistently conscious fear of death, otherwise they will be so paralyzed with fear out of the certainty of death, they will not be able to function productively to ensure the preservation of the human species. Where the normal person feel the fear of death consciously, it is most likely to be temporary for most.
My focus on the fear of death at the level of subconscious mind.
Re the neuroscience of fear, it was once researched the amygdala is responsible for the ‘fear’ emotion, but now ‘fear’ is said to arise from deeper in the brain, within the subconscious mind [relatively est. 90% of the mind].
avoiding “A” with “fear of A”
I don’t see how this is problematic.
Humans are instinctively programmed to fear snakes to avoid snakes so that the person will survive and not die. Thus this ‘fear snakes’ is ‘fear death’.
By the way this is not a conscious thought of fearing snakes.
We interpret this as, the subconscious mind strive to ensure the person live and thus the subconscious mind fear death, which in turn generate the instinct of fearing snakes and other very poisonous animals which has killed our ancestors throughout eons ago.
The fight-or-flight response is the avoidance of death which linked to the subconscious fear of death. The subconscious mind ‘fear of death’ programmed the ‘fight-or-flight response’ to avoid death.
Thus there is a fear of death at the subconscious level of the mind which is NOT communicated to the conscious mind.
Instead the fear of death at the subconscious level is manifested in term of the existential crisis which generate anxieties, despair and Angst as reflected in the Buddha Story. The majority of people are not conscious the anxieties, despair and Angst are driven by the ‘fear of death’ at the subconscious level.
To soothe these untraceable anxieties, despair and Angst, most theists cling to theism, which is the most effective balm available.
Caution:
Wherever you read ‘fear of death’ you are likely to think in term of the conscious fear of death. Refrain from such a thought.
In this discussion, the fear of death is related only to the subconscious fear of death that is activated deep in the brain/mind beyond the conscious mind. I often refer this subconscious fear of death as the existential crisis within the subconscious mind.