What hope is there for atheists who are about to die?

Question

What comfort would an atheist or agnostic give to someone who was about to die soon? Is there anything less frightening than just dying and becoming worm food?
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I never said atheists live on false hope! Where did I say anything like that? I asked what they could say to ease the mind of someone who was going to die soon.

Answer 1

I'm an agnostic and I'd tell a dying friend to tell me all their fondest memories, maybe help them write a journal or memoirs. I'd tell them that if they're atheist, they will enjoy a quiet peace as they pass on, but ...

if they're agnostic, (and they're willing to accept less rigid concepts on the process of death ....)

I'd tell them I believe we are all made of physical and conscious energy. When we die, we no longer need our bodies, (the physical) but our conscious minds, which exist even in the body's sleeping state in the form of dreams, carries on. When we die, it survives and joins a massive thought energy of others. This is where we may be able to meet deceased loved ones, former lovers and past life friends and family.

It's not a physical world but, rather a world of thought and freedom from stress and human flaws and negative emotional characteristics. It's free of physical aches and pains, worry, apprehension, fear, hatred, all the negatives of life. It's light and airy and free from gravity. We feel as an indiviual and we feel as one with all the others.

That's where I think we end up, anyway.
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Answer 2

Oh yee of little faith [lol] -- doesn't matter if you guys believe in an afterlife or not -- I've BEEN THERE TWICE [as you can tell from this message]. Oh yeah. it's not all 'oh my grandma was there , and everyone blah, blah, blah... nothing like that happened to me. but i DID leave my body behind while i was no longer breathing [turned blue, lips an ashen color]... i believe that everyone's experience is different. i saw no brilliant white light, or any of that other hokey crap... but there definitely IS an afterlife... it is the most peaceful tranquil state of being you will ever experience, whether you believe in God or not. only your mortal body is left behind... your spirit -- the thing that keeps you breathing -- is the part of you that gets set free. i DID NOT want to come back either time. there's no pain, no sorrow, no worry, just ----- peace. so now you know. there IS more after you die. how you experience that journey depends on who you are and how well you lived your life.

I had a seizure both times that i stopped breathing... and the second time i was in the OCEAN a foot from shore. talk about frightening, to be conscious and alive and a second later not breathing, and being sucked up into a wave? holy crap! But i never swallowed so much as an oz. of water.... i attribute that one to God --- only a minute earlier i had been treading water about 20 feet deep. Needless to say i don't go swimming anymore.

So, if you are an atheist or whatever, you can tell the dying person what i tell you here -- that there is tranquility and a peace they cannot ever imagine waiting for them. you certainly won't be lying.

Answer 3

maybe the agnostic or athesist could show some respect for the dying person by sitting with them and talking to them about their life and the good times they had.

maybe they wouldn't need to be judgemental about what the other person believed.

If the people really respected each other, then the person dying might have an easier time making their transition to the new part of their lives.

i would think it selfish to impose my values on someone in that persiod of transition. it is not about the healthy person, but the comfort of the one about to pass on.

no one is saying to compromise one's values, but there is a time for everything.

argueing about the existence of God, when one is getting ready to meet God, I don't get it. why sour the moment for the person making the most important transition we can think of.

Answer 4

We can give someone our love and attention.
Dying is a transcendental experience for the living, I don't know so much about the person who died?
More frightening would be to face forever being somewhere where you can see your loved ones, but could not touch them or help them in any way - while waiting for them to die to join you.

Answer 5

i ask your self how plenty distinctive your adventure would be if assisted suicide became criminal. You, of each and every person, could understand that suffering via an prolonged dying isn't in basic terms bodily arduous yet mentally arduous as nicely. i'm confident you have seen your uncomplicated share of delusional human beings as they draw on the fringe of the tip, pumped crammed with all kinds of medicine to help ordinary their pains and concerns. the persons you notice in a hospice at the instant are not the persons they have been while healthful. applying the psychological state of a dying individual to sell your irrational ideals interior the main important character of historic myths is, to place it bluntly, despicable. you may feel embarrassment approximately your self. you're an exceptional occasion of ways callus and conceited Christians could be. that's attitudes like yours that stress a lot of human beings faraway from faith.

Answer 6

Well I guess if they don't believe in their maker than they would have to settle on being worm food. I wouldn't want an atheists to be with me during my last hours of life. To me that would be like looking at person who has no soul. If this atheists is still alive than they have time to find their soul and allow their maker in. So see there is still hope.

Answer 7

Atheists do not live on false hope. They know that everyone just goes to the grave. As for comforting someone who is dying...they would just be there for them.

Answer 8

Just dying and becoming worm food IS less frightening than spending eternity with fundamentalist Xians.

Answer 9

Listen to the song "thoughts of a dying atheist" by Muse

Answer 10

because there are two kinds of actors in the world: Method actors, who examine every aspect of their role and revive it night after night, and Character actors who merely play a minor role. It is said that Method actors have a very good chance of becoming emotionally "insane" for having to do this. Sound familiar?