Death is so scary because so little of our conscience self is passed onto the next generation. All of our experiences, memories, and feelings cease to exist. Only a fraction of our heritage is passed onto the next generation. That is all that survives of our mind.

Compare this to our genetic code. Approximately half of our genetic code is passed down in each offspring. Death only partially erases our genetic makeup, and so no one is scared of their genes being lost when they die.

Death is scary because we have no means to pass on our memories and experiences to the next generation. It is as if we were meant to be scared of death, so that we fight against it.