There is no reason to be afraid of
dates, because
after all they are just little oblong fruit, while
you are a big (relatively) representative of the
animal
kingdom.
Generally speaking,
animal rules over
vegetal which rules over
mineral --- the
Great Chain of Being tells us so.
Except for unfortunate exceptions, like when a big rock crushes a patch of mushrooms, a tree falls on a mushroom picker or a flu virus spoils all of your vacation.
But I am digressing. Dates. Now dates, when they are dry and a nice golden brown are not fearsome at all. When they are fresh, they could scare a weak spirit, which you are not.
But in any case, fresh dates are to be found only in the Sahara desert, or in other inconvenient and politically unstable places.
And after all, even a fresh date is just a little fruit, right ? Now, a date seed is something else. It can be vicious, especially when propelled by a slingshot, or thrown at you during Christmas dinner by your vicious cousin from Turin.
In any case, the seed will not jump of the date and go for your throat. You don't bother it, it won't bother you.
Finally, if you are a lover of risk, you may want to go and pick some dates off a date palm: in that case, you would suffer from
fear of dating, but that is a totally different problem.
If all those dates on the palm suddenly rebel and fall on you and abuse you in unspeakably vicious way, well, that is
date rape. Don't say you had not been warned.
Another problem, bordering into the
superstitious, is the fear of certain dates in the year, like
Friday 13th or the
Cinco de Mayo, or
January 2nd dedicated to San Crudo, protector of
hangovers.
This particular fear (
cronopicocraniophobia) can be dispelled by not owning a calendar.