Are Atheists scared of dying?

Question

Many people who follow a religion (including myself) are not scared of dying, their many concern is to be good in this world and the life after would be good. Some even look forward to it! So I was wondering if Atheists think that their is no life after death then would you not be scared of dying?

I am not trying to put anyone down, am just curious. don't do any bashing!

Answer 1

I'm not scared. Once your time is done you are done. You can't avoid death. My aim in life is to be a good person, that is all anyone can hope to be. I accept dying, you can't avoid or fight it

~Atheist

EDIT - Watchman, I would stop with the bible quoting, no one reads it and you are wasting your time. Plus it is rather pathetic that you just copy and paste instead of putting your own personal opinon on here

Answer 2

I can't answer for the atheists, but I would guess that they fear death as any other would. It is not a fear in reality but a dreading that there may be one more thing to do before leaving that I feel. My philosophy is that I should help those that need help and do what good I can while I live. I believe that I have a certain number of people to help and will not die until the last person on the list is helped. I hope it is not you! I have heard Christians say they don't fear death but when the time came they fought like crazy to beat the 'Grim Reaper'. I have even heard them cry for their god not to take them. For someone expecting a great reward in Heaven, this does not speak well for their beliefs. I figure when my time comes, it comes and there is nothing I can do to change it. I wouldn't mind living a long life but only as long as I didn't have to live it in pain and struggling to get around, a thing I haven't known in over 9 years because each day to me is extreme pain and a fight to do most anything, but I continue on as best I can. Still I have no fear, for I know it will come knocking and it will not be late nor early.

Answer 3

I am agnostic and honestly not sure of what I believe about the afterlife. I had considered that possibly there is just nothing - and that thought terrifies me. If I knew or believed without a doubt that there was nothing after death - I would be terrified of dying. Honestly, I am scared of dying but not as I would be if I believed that after death there was nothing but emptiness. I am still exploring my beliefs at this time but I mostly entertain the idea of reincarntion. Reincarnation is the only afterlife (if you will) that I can find feasible. The brain is a mass of energy and science has proven that energy is neither lost nor destroyed, merely transfered from one party to the next. Therefore I look at the brain as a sort of 'soul' if you will. If this 'soul' or energy can neither be lost nor destroyed, when it leaves the body, it must be transfered to another party. That is how I look at it. So I am not afraid of where my soul will go. Even if there were a 'God', I know I am a good person and if this 'God' is how he is described, he would not condemn a good person to Hell.

Answer 4

I am. I wasn't able to get my mind to accept life-after-death; Ive always been someone who has questioned and investigated everything (ever since I was a young kid, I remember trying to figure out death and god, etc.). I really did try to accept things that people wrote and talked about but I would see logical holes in it. I know that so many people are capable of adopting a belief system and then living life as if the belief system is true -- I sometimes envy that. I do, however, get some significant relief from some minor spiritual experiences I've had and from reading the enlightenment accounts in '3 Pillars of Zen'.

Answer 5

Being afraid or unafraid of death has nothing to do with religious beliefs. It's just coming to accept the inevitable. You are going to stop breathing one day and then that is all she wrote. Whether there is anything beyond that point is up for debate. If I live a wholesome life I'm not living it because I'm dying to go to heaven or afraid of going to hell but because this is the only life I have and it would be pretty stupid to live in a way nonconducive to my well being. I don't want to die, but hey it happens. I want to enjoy the present the best way I can before the **** hits the fan. I'm not afraid of dying per se but rather how it's going to come. I'd like to go in my sleep. My belief is that heaven and hell is here and now.

Answer 6

Of the process itself? Would rather depend what happens.

As to being afraid about afterwards, since there is no afterwards it doesn't make sense, do I wake up in cold sweats about it, well I used to but not anymore, it seems pointless.

And for your guide most people I know who worry about death are the believers, take a look at the threads here, very few are by worried atheists.

Answer 7

I'm not scared of dying. I don't see what there is to be scared of. I think death is just like eternal sleep that you can't wake up from. Death is unavoiadable, it will come to me sooner or later and life is too short to waste it worrying over death. When death comes to me I'll be too dead to be bothered by my death anyway. :)

You see, that's it. People who believe they are going to heaven and that everything is going to be perfect feel like they have nothing to worry about, and people like I who believe that death is the end of it all believe that we won't even know we're dead, we'll simply be dead, so there's nothing to worry about.

Answer 8

For me to say that I am not scared of dieing would be a lie. I think that most people, including religious folk who believe in an afterlife, is at least SOMEWHAT afraid of death, especially by an unnatural means (accident, murder, etc.).

I live my life to the fullest knowing that I may die tommorrow. I am scared of it, but I know that if I continue to worry about it, I would never enjoy the life that I have now. I also enjoy my life to the fullest knowing that this is it. This is my one and only shot on this earth.

Answer 9

Why be scared of what's beyond death if you believe it to be nothingness. That's why i am not afraid of death itself... it won't matter to me after the fact because i will no longer exist and won't be able to reflect on what it means at that point. The only thing I'm afraid of related to death is the suffering that accompanies it.

To me the concept of an afterlife is scarier. Being able to know you're dead and worry about the things left undone in your life, knowing that your friends and family are suffering because of your death... Even if i were in a blissful heaven these thoughts would be too depressing to handle.

Answer 10

On the contrary, most atheists are the ones ready for that event because they only know one place where their body is going(back to earth) and they have no worries about hell or heaven. They do good because they feel good about doing it not for any price of afterlife but for the price of the present situation. Most religious do good because because of they were told about afterlife meaning they walk the path out of fear and because there is a reward afterlife. Many religious are seen afraid to die specially if theye believe they have not yet corrected their ways.