How do true athiests do it?

Question

I mean no offense and I place this question out of curiousity, not disrespect.

I've always been curious how a person can 100% genuinly believe that when you die, it all goes black and that is it? To believe in no after life of any type, to me essientally means that you really do not exist at all.

When I look at my daughter, I cannot fathom the idea that there is no chance of there being some sort of afterlife, heaven, something. It's just too difficult to imagine. I have this almost intictive feeling that a greater loving entity must exist for us all, as this is my wish for my own offspring. If you believe we happened by total accident and when you die that is it, then by two generations, you never existed at all. Think about it. There has to be more. How can you describe love, emotions, life's pleasures, if it is all for not? Most atheists cry out for God when they are facing death, this is a proven fact. Why is this?

Answer 1

I'm going to answer the last part of your question first because it's the most important to me. I think atheists "cry out for God" when they die because A.) It's just an expression, more or less. I mean, I'm a hardcore atheist but I still say things like "Thank God" with a very sincere tone when something good happens because it's just a common expression of the culture that I live in. It's like, what else would I say? "Thank random chance?" that just sounds goofy. B.) In extreme circumstances, people might try anything to get out of it. So maybe, if they are really afraid and their mind is freaking out, they suddenly just figure "what the hell" and try to ask God for help, even though they don't believe. Especially because they are so familiar with hearing people talk about God all the time because of the culture we live in. Like suppose you were in an Egyptian Pyramid and got trapped in a vault or something and you were with Egyptian guides that said you have to do some kind of ritual to some Egyptian god to get out...being so immersed in all that culture and being in such an extreme circumstance, you might very well go along with the Egyptian ritual, hoping it will work. I think it's similar for atheists, being so immersed in christian culture where everyone constantly talks about God, when faced with an extreme situation, people just get scared and figure it can't hurt to try. Or, without even thinking about it, it just comes out because we're so used to hearing about it. Ya know? Someone points a gun at you and you automatically blurt out, "Oh GOD!" or something. Or you're shot and you blurt out, "Oh Jesus help me!" or whatever. It doesn't mean the person really believes it if they were in their rational state of mind.

Did I explain that well? I don't know but hopefully you get what I'm saying.

As for the rest of your question, I personally don't believe in an after-life because it just honestly does not seem believable to me and I see no evidence to suggest otherwise. Simple as that. You talk about wanting there to be more, but WANTING doesn't make it true. We all wish our loved ones would never die, but that doesn't mean that they are immortal. You want your kids to live forever in an after-life or something, but that doesn't make it true. People always talk about believing in God because without God life is meaningless. Just because you figure life needs a purpose, it doesn't mean that the Judeo-Christian God and the whole associated belief structure with heaven and hell and angels and praying and rituals like baptism and stuff is all the true nature of reality. It's a gigantic jump to conclusions to think that, because the world had to come from somewhere and life must have a meaning, that Christianity (or any religion) is true. I have no idea where the universe came from or why we're here. But just because I don't know doesn't mean that any of the magical religions of world seem the least bit believable to me as the answer.

Answer 2

Hold everything - "Most atheists cry out for God when they are facing death.....? Where did you get that from?

If you choose to live in Bliss and need an afterlife then you should have it in your mind. But until someone can prove an afterlife then it's up for grabs. Your faith teaches an afterlife with not one spec of evidence other than their say so. You do not question that? And, there view is heaven or hell. If you are a bible reading christian then you have to know that you haven't a chance - it's a downhill ride and if he/it gets angry with you - you're gone.

You are not allowed a single negative thought in your life, he can hear you, you can't do one tiny little thing wrong - he can see you! The plan is to watch you like a hawk, your mind, your actions, when you eat, when you get into your car, when you go to bed, when you get up, when you look lustfully at someone - everything. Did you know you have no privacy? I find it difficult to imagine that anyone would believe such foolish nonsense much less think about a heaven or otherwise. And to think you are probably going to fill your little child's mind with such absurd ideas - forever frightening her - based not on truth or fact - just a belief that is more difficult to imagine then heaven.

Answer 3

Eh, no big thing really. It's just the way a person sees it...if ya see it that way and just accept it as a fact of life...the thought isn't nearly as devastating as it is to someone who believes in a heaven.


And P.S. I don't mind, and can even appreciate, good polite questions of people who are just curious. Especially people who let us tell them who we are in our own words rather then believing all the negative stereotypes they were told. But usually I'm a bit put off when people have to in the end include assumed stereotypes and some aspect of trying to make us be of your beliefs.

I.E. " How can you describe love, emotions..." and saying "atheists cry out for God when they are facing death, this is a proven fact" when I have NEVER heard any legitimate proof of it being a "fact". Most atheists, especially older ones, rarely even reveal themselves as such, so how would they know? Are the people who claim this as fact there for every atheist death? Do they advertise, telling people "if your atheist dies, call us and let us know what they did"?

These kind of "facts" and other similar things always come from the mouths of BELIEVERS, the percent who think they can try to speak for us and don't let us speak for ourselves about who we are as people. They have no clue. And yet people just believe what they say. Why is that?

Answer 4

Urm, so you're saying you'd rather believe in an afterlife than death simply because you can't accept such a harsh reality...

So you're basically admitting that you'd rather go with a fantasy world than reality. Ain't that the typical religious mindset for ya?

And please, give it up. Atheists do not 'cry out for God' when they die. That's complete BS. Sure, we'd love for there to be an afterlife where we never die, but this is the real world kid. I'd rather accept reality and move on than be stuck in the happy little rutt of a fantasy you're in.

Answer 5

Wishful thinking does not make a proposition true.

Where would this entity that extends beyond life be now? Why would it be undetectable? When brain damage occurs, and the ability to be who we were vanishes, does that mean that there is some other essence that we remain? What would that be? When biology seems to contain all that is described as consciousness, how can one be conscious without biology?

Most atheists do NOT cry out for god when they are facing death. (Suggesting that you have "a proven fact" when there's no evidence for it is both arrogant of you and disrespectful toward the memories of our brothers and sisters who have died dignified deaths as atheists.) Your fantasy about us is apparently as intense as your fantasy about your own immortality. As was suggested above, we have no grief at having not experienced life before we were born, and once we're gone, we will have no regret of not living a moment longer than the time we survived. There is no more existence of consciousness after life for us than there is for the mosquito you smash in the summer, the deer eaten by the coyote, the pine trees used to build my house, or the salmon I had for dinner.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 6

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I assure you that there's no great mystery or effort involved. Seldom arises in real life and it's not something that consumes me in any way. Comes up all the time, here...but then this isn't reality, now is it? Believe what you want to believe and for whatever reason(s). If you need to believe to validate your existence, so be it. Everyone is not in this life to agree with your opinions. You really needn't be so overly concerned.

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Your opinion, again. If every atheist in the world cried out to a god or gods or your god...it wouldn't be validation of the existence of a god or gods or your god.

Answer 7

Reality is the word.

Why do you think that you can't live without the idea of an afterlife?

Probalbly because not believing in an afterlife is sad or scary. To atheists, it's neither.

The thought of an afterlife is comforting.

The thought of what happens when you die is overwhelming.

Also you said that it is a fact most atheists cry out for God when they're done.

Give a source, a link, anything.

Answer 8

Funny...just because YOU can't imagine something, you expect others to have limited minds and imaginations also? Sorry. Maybe one day you will be truly enlightened. Also, a true Atheist won't cry out for God when facing death, any more than an unenlightened Christian will renounce God. Your first sentence stating you don't mean to offend is the most telling thing about your question. Of course you mean to offend, because you don't like anything you can't understand.

Answer 9

How would you know that? Have you ever tortured any Atheists to their dying breath?
No, my friend, and I am thankful that there is no afterlife. Could you imagine your lovely daughter bound in hell, raped by Satan's minions and burned on a grill for all eternity? I certainly wouldn't want that for anybody, much less my daughter, and much less for nothing more than having her own mind.
Look at your daughter again, and picture--even heaven. A totalitarian God watching your every move, listening to your every thought, and judging you for.. Thought Crime. Then in heaven, you're forced to serve him for eternity. Sound familiar? Sounds like North Korea, and Cambodia, doesn't it? A little like Orwell's 1984, too, indeed.
Could you imagine that being all there is to life? Existing simply to serve some creator entity in his vainglorious self-promoting pompous endeavor to create other beings to think he looks, acts, and is awesome?
Now, think again of the light switch just turning off, existence coming to an end, and life going on as it was before your birth. No longer aware of anything, you certainly cannot have any complaints, can you? It is a very comforting notion that one day we will indeed have rest, genuine rest, and it will not be perceived or understood by us, the dead.

Answer 10

It's hard to accept that you are not the purpose of the universe after all, but eventually you get used to the idea. So yes, death is final permanent nonexistence. Should I try to fool myself into believing otherwise simply because I find that unpleasant?

Regarding emotions, etc., pre-supposing an afterlife doesn't answer your questions either, it just defers them.

How many atheist deaths have you attended or at least researched, such that you know most atheists cry out for god at death? My guess would be 'none'.