Atheists and non believers. How do you live with the thought that you go nowhere after you die?

Question

I just can't bear the thought. How do you deal with your belief. Does it bother you at all? just curious.

Just to clarify this, we don't spend our lives preparing for heaven. We just believe we'll go there by faith.

Answer 1

No, it doesn't bother, since when the time comes, I will not actually exist any more. So I don't care what happens.

Answer 2

I was scared about the fact of dying and going nowhere as a little kid. Now, as I'm maturing, I don't mind the fact. When it comes the time, I'll be an old man, and I won't care anymore because I would've done everything I wanted to do. The mind doesn't exist as we're dead, so how can we possibly know anything once we die? Just live for today, Derek. Make your dreams come true. When you reach sheer happiness, you wouldn't care if you died, because you'd be happy with the fact that you lived a happy life. Harness the power of happiness, Derek.

Answer 3

I believe that what was me goes back to all that is. I find that quite comforting. Death is breaking free of the physical body and returning to that source, the universe, atom by atom. I'm still not sure on my stance as to whether conciousness continues on after death simply because I've never died and lived to tell about it. I would *like* to believe that, but I can't in good conscience just because I don't know and it would, IMO, be arrogant for me to assume I know. So no - it doesn't bother me because if I'm dead and there's nothing after that - I won't care because I won't be. The belief in an afterlife is for the living. It soothes the pain of losing a loved one by at least giving them hope that they will see their loved ones again on the *other side*. Humans have a hard time with the concept of dead is dead because it's hard for us to fathom losing our consciousness - which contains all we are, memories, personality, emotions etc... Our conscious mind is all we know and it limits our perspective by its very nature.

Answer 4

I think anxiety similar to yours constitutes one of the chief causes of religion's popularity. However, as difficult as it may be, wishful thinking does not make the wish come true.

All life is bookended by birth and death. Having watched both people and animals I loved die, I can see that physically there is no difference. My dogs and cats have had no less soul than my friends and family members. Human beings are at our core simply another mammalian species, and we will reach the same ultimate end to life.

Having considered this at length, largely enhanced by the death of my life-partner from cancer (and my own bout with cancer), I have developed an acceptance of death as an end to life. It is, after all, the great equalizer. As the psalmist wrote:

"Yea, he shall see that even the wise die,
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
Their graves are their homes for ever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they named lands their own.
Man cannot abide in his pomp,
he is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:10-12)

Many people cannot imagine certain things: death, evolution as a non-directed process, the vast size of the universe. However, failings of human imaginations do not change the realities of existence. And on occasion, when our imagination expands a bit, we get a slightly larger glimpse of what it means to exist, to be alive until we die.

Answer 5

Of course not. People are no different from any other animal, so the fate of people is absolutely no different. We share the same DNA (although different strains). You can see what happens to dead bodies. There is nothing else. You die and you rot. There is only a candy coated fiction designed to make people feel that it is acceptable to be exploited during their lives because of the rewards in the "next life" which is only a ridiculous fiction for the feeble minded or those who believe in the existential reality of the tooth fairy. Challenge your ideas with scientific testing, not blind faith to fairy tales.

Answer 6

There is no belief in atheism and it doent bother me or I would be the same as you. Why do I need something at the end of the road? It takes away from the beauty of the walk there. Living your life devoted to something/someone you have never met seems like you should be the one asking how can you deal with your belief.

Answer 7

DEREK K what gives you or anybody the wright to say that Atheist or non believers will go no where when they die. I,m a Christian "not the best one" but i believe in the lord above,and i know that he has a plan for every one,even your so called"non believers and atheists. Remember this DEREK K "JUDGE NOT LESS YE BE JUDGED" Think about what you are asking and saying.

Answer 8

It only proves that you believe only because you fear uncertainty. That is really religion, it is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, just as it is, the spirit of the spiritless conditions-it is the opium of the people. For the ignorant and suffering man, it is the cause, the solution and the answer to everything.

Answer 9

On the contrary, I find it a very comforting thought, and very empowering.

I was born, I live, I die. There's no god who's gonna come along and wipe out my whole influence on the world, I'm not going to drift around for all eternity, I'm going to play my role in the universe and that's it.

I have no excuse not to live every day to the fullest, 'cause tomorrow it'll be a day I can never have again, and my days are all I've got.

Answer 10

oh derek. dont act like you dont fear death. If I was to jump out of a dark alley and shove a gunin your mouth and tell you I was gonna blow your brains all over the pavement, you would be just as scared as the next. Everyone must die, it is something the strong can accept and the weak must find faith

Answer 11

How do you deal with the delusion that there's a heaven, where all your good deeds will be rewarded? Does it bother me that I'll die like billions before me have done, or as you will someday do? No. I don't dwell on death like so many christians here like to do. If you're so keen to get to heaven, then go.