Atheists and death?

Question

How do atheists view death? I mean, what if an atheist is murdered or killed in a car crash, how do they view it? Just their body wore out or it sucks they were killed?

How do their funerals work, do they send each other cards and say sorry man, this bites or what? Thanks

Answer 1

I see a lot of death in my line of work, and my atheism actually helps me deal with it. Instead of angrily wishing that an invisible god had kept the death from happening, I simply remember that death is a part of life and it will happen to everyone. Sometimes it happens too early, but that's just the way things are. It's not the fault of the Devil, sin, or a mystical being; it's just the consequences of someones actions.
Of course, atheists are as upset as anyone when a friend or loved one dies; I doubt that they are sending eachother cards, saying "sorry, that sucks". That would be incredibly insensitive for anyone, atheist or Christian. We just don't surround the grieving with false hope of an eternal paradise. The funerals are just like any other, except with no mention of a God. Their lives are still celebrated, and they are mourned just the same.

Answer 2

I believe that death is the end for us. Nothing more. I do not want to die...I would like to live to be a very old person and die in my sleep. But hey, if I go, then I go. I honestly have never been to an atheist funeral. I plan to be cremated and have my ashes scattered in Big Bend National Park. I haven't decided what I want my memorial service to be like. Probably some secular readings and some music that I like. Nothing real fancy or long and drawn out. I would like the service to be in a nice park or maybe on a beach. If an ahteist friend had a death, I would send a sympathy card or flowers. There are non-religious sympathy cards out there. ;)

Edit:
Thank you Jennifer.

Answer 3

As an athiest...

I see death as my luck running out, the end of the line.. finito. Nothingness, worm food.

The point is this life is precious, now. Life is precious for me, precious for other humans, precious for animals, plants, etc. All precious.
Now is the time to enjoy and share joy. There is no afterlife or reward/penance. What we do now is what we get.

The funeral works any way the person chooses in their will, or their relatives choose is no requests are left. Yes, death sucks, but for the relatives and the ones left behind. If the athiest who died left a good life, and taught how precious it is now, then the relatives should be comforted the dead person had a good happy life. Death is difficult to deal with, and traumatic - but not for the dead person, athiest or not, they are just a new source of worm food.

Answer 4

I would imagine that an Atheist views death just as most others do, the end of ones life. Dying per say has nothing to do with religion or a belief in any particular God.
As for their funerals, I would imagine they could be held right at the cemetary they have chosen to be buried in, a grave-site service offers no chapel/church, just friends/family paying last repects.

Answer 5

An Atheist views it as simply the end. Its painful they're gone but they're gone and thats that.

Funerals work pretty much the same way yours do but without the religion. And since when do religious people send cards that say "Your loved one is in heaven with god"? Or any other crap like that? You send cards that say words like sympathy and condolences.

Its not that hard to get. Religious people just make it harder to understand than it actually is.

Answer 6

"Death is nothing to us, since every good and evil lie in sensation. Therefore, correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes a mortal life enjoyable, not by adding an endless span of time but by taking away the longing for immortality. For there is nothing dreadful in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living. Therefore, foolish is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will cause pain when it arrives but because anticipation of it is painful. What is no trouble when it arrives is an idle worry in anticipation. Death, therefore - the most dreadful of evils - is nothing to us, since while we exist, death is not present, and whenever death is present, we do not exist. It is nothing either to the living or the dead, since it does not exist for the living, and the dead no longer are."

-Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus

As for funerals. You can have much of what a religious funeral would have. There would be obviously no prayer however, but more eulogies by friends and family; much more personal than a random prayer.

Best Regards,
Zach

Answer 7

This particular atheist is agnostic about an afterlife. There isn't any evidence for it, but it's a kind of a nice thought. I do not know for certain and neither does anyone else. Anyone who says different is selling something.

If there somehow is one, it's a good bet that it's not likely to be like anything anyone imagines.

Answer 8

Death is the end of life. That makes life all the more precious because this is it.

We Atheists have funerals, we just don't have all the religious sermons about souls and the afterlife. It is more focused on the person who died.

Answer 9

Those of us who do not believe in life after death truly value the real life that we have. I very much doubt that any atheist would agree with Christian Right Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who said

“For the believing Christian, death is no big deal”

Answer 10

If an atheist is murdered or killed in a car crash, he or she does not view it at all, because he or she is dead. Dead people don't view things. They're dead.