I do not think that we are unaware of death. Even as children, we see many deaths every year on TV. The problem is that the materialistic assumptions of modern science and philosophy resist serious consideration of the evidence of an afterlife.
I do not argue that people are not aware of death but that it is not real to them.
Consider a toddler. You tell the child not to touch the stove it’s HOT.
The child does not understand hot until it touches the stove and gets burned. Pain is a teacher.
Modern man does not understand death any longer because the pain of death has been removed from the common experience.
Think of the public schools today where if a student suddenly dies in a car accident or some other unnatural death. The school brings out the “Grief Councilors”.
When in the past would this have ever been considered necessary? It would not because grief was a common emotion for everyone.
People know that they will die but it is not real to them because the emotional pain of death has never been there for them personally.
It has become common for doctors to prescribe anti-depressants for those who experience the death of a child or spouse. Grief has become such an uncommon occurrence that people don’t know how to deal with it and neither do their circle of friends and relatives so they of no help.
When these now rare tragedies happen people no longer know how to turn to God in prayer. No one tells the survivor to turn to God in prayer.
People are so removed from their mortality that they have forgotten that it is a fact and that eventually they will stand before God after death.
I think the deaths on TV can only further remove death from reality for people. More frequently than not TV writers do not deal with the personal pain the relatives of victim experience. Even if they do it is brief and shallow because of the necessities of time. If the victim’s family is ever shown again they are emotionally recovered.
Modern man for the most part is a stranger to the pain of death and this has permitted him to estrange himself from God.
Yes, materialism, science and nihilistic philosophy has given modern man excuses to not believe in God but I don’t believe it would be possible with out the removal of the direct experience of the emotional pain of death.