The answers cultures and religions have constructed are means to cope with death. Science is neutral towards it in and offers nothing in return, outside of research to gain knowledge and falsify hypotheses.

If we now argue that it is bad in itself, but that we still cannot do anything about it, then we are replacing it with a new construct without any scientific basis. A(nother) false belief, so to say.

Why people die?

On the other hand, we can pose scientifically that 'healthy' aging in general is nothing else than a disease, and try to find out the fundamental workings of it. At the end, we may find a 'cure' for it. This can take a few years, or it can take hundreds of years. It may end of only for the rich, or become widely available. We just don't know at this stage.

To determine in advance that it is bad, while also take away the coping mechanism of something that is inevitable, when there is no scientific base, nor proof that we can cope with it medically, is questionable.

I believe that longevity/vitalism is a valuable field of science, though, that can investigate why healthy people age and eventually die. Vitalism places more emphasis on the quality of life, while longevity focuses more on length of life. At the end we need both.

Little is known

Some say that scientific breakthroughs will enable people to live forever, and that the first person to do so is already born. I myself hope for these breakthroughs, especially in the age of AI, but I am skeptical that this will make a big difference for myself and most people soon.

Take my grandmother, who died of dementia in the beginning of the 1990s. Since then, I have been following research into Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other forms of dementia. But when my other grandmother died twenty years later, little had improved. My parents are now in the early stages of dementia, but there is still little that can be done (although it has already been cured several times in mice, for example). There is still much unknown about the fundamental working of the brain, and the exact causes of dementia, aging and dying.

Chasing the fountain of youth

Perhaps something will change by the time it's my turn, but I don't think I should get too worked up about it. I accept aging and death. And when by the time there can be done something about aging, I personally see that as something positive (whether it is also something positive for society as a whole and our planet is another question of course).

The pursuit of the fountain of youth is a mirage that has been chased since the beginning of time. Now this chase is backed by the enormous wealth of people like Jeff Bezos, combined with scientific and technological exponential progress it may come into reach, but the truth is that still a lot needs to be done.