I fear death. And death of others.

The whole idea of no longer existing, with the possibility of nothing beyond death.

I randomly start thinking of such things (I'd say once every few months) and boy does it leave me super depressed state.........

Say you are born in a room without senses. You still got the senses but there would be no way of finding out. Thus no way of finding a fear.

That's a different arguement. That's being born with a pre-wired fear of something, just never encountering that something.

That's the same as me being afraid of heights, but living my life somewhere flat. I'm still afraid of heights, if I go on a plane, near a cliff, or in a tall tower, I will still be afraid. Just until I do, I won't know that.

In this case, my only choice would be to live without the stimulus which causes me to be fearful. However I do not have the choice not to be afraid of heights when placed in that position.

Will Smith said fear is a choice. You calling The Fresh Prince a liar?
*cracks knuckles*

I fear being a broken man. I fear depression and listlessness. I fear failure.

Ironic that these fears don't help prevent what you fear.

Life's tough sometimes.

I have a phobia about having my blood drawn, certain parts of my neck touched, and tight spaces only when laying down.

Yet vampires don't scare me at all....

You have decided that your fears are not optional, that they are hard-wired into your mind.  Therefore, they are so.  And you will never overcome them so long as you stand by your decision.  Any attempt to confront them will be challenged by the choice you have already made.  Since you believe that choice to be outside your ability to undo, you choose to be unable to overcome your fears.  That is how you've decided to apply your free will, though I cannot fathom why you insist on doing so.

And you have decided that you know the answer to what fear is and everyone else is wrong if they disagree with you.

You are telling me that fear is a decision, but I am in disagreement with you. Maybe you believe fear is a decision because you yourself have no true fears thus for you it's easy to tell people "just get over it."

I am telling you, respectfully, that you are incorrent, and when you attempt to convince me that your opinion is 100% correct, and mine is 100% wrong, and that I've decided on what to fear, all I see is a big ego.

I think fear in and of itself is something you can't control. It's a defense mechanism designed to keep you alive. Fear is good. However, you can overcome fear by being educated. You can learn not to fear water by learning to swim. You can learn to overcome fear of heights by repetition and safety measures. You can have a fear of dogs but if you're around them all of the time without an incident, you learn to be comfortable around them. I used to be afraid of public speaking but after learning to laugh at myself, I overcame it.

Then, you have your irrational fears. These are the fears that people have despite there being no reasonable justification. Perhaps they can be overcome but those in fear have no choice in the matter. You can say to yourself, "I'm not going to be afraid." or "If I die, I die. So be it." but when the situation actually arises, there's just no way to say how you'll react.

Mike Tyson said "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.". I've personally gone into some crazy stuff and wound up panicking. You can't control it. Fear isn't a choice.

Fear does not exist in this dojo. Does it?