>> Death isn’t a state of being. It is the absence of being. When something dies, it ceases to be > Huh? What about things that were never alive? They never ex

>> Death isn’t a state of being. It is the absence of being. When something dies, it ceases to be > Huh? What about things that were never alive? They never existed No, he means that when something dies, it ceases to be what it was. When a dog dies, it's no longer a dog, but a corpse, and pretty soon will be earth. Same with a person (assuming no afterlife). He doesn't mean that a dead thing is nothing at all, only that a onetime-living thing ceases to be what it was when it dies. >> strictly speaking, when something dies, what we are left with is not a body, as only a living thing is or has a body, but the remains of what was once alive > Strictly speaking, you're confidently guessing at something you don't know and have no way of knowing. Everything we observe about the difference between living animals and corpses tells us that the living body ceases to exist at death. It's a very basic observation. More systematic observation of the onetime-organism's biology or biochemistry will reveal the same thing, in more detail.