what comforts do athiests have?

Question

for people who are athiests, im doing a report on your ideals, and beliefs, what would you say is your comfort when you think about death, and what do you belive happens

Answer 1

we don't have comforts. that's not what life is about to us. we do not let fear of death overtake us even though it is not comfortable for us to think about death as the ultimate end of the road. death is not scary because once we are dead we are gone, but it is more the process of dying that is quite terrifying. i think we as a whole are strong and brave people for accepting death as the end and not denying that part of reality.

this is not to say we are not kind and moral people. religion is not the only thing that is capable of instilling righteousness into people. also, in order for us to be decent people we do not need a reward dangled in front of us like a dog, or fear of punishment for simply being human. so perhaps it means even more that we are moral, kind, helpful and caring not because we must in order to get to a place called heaven, but for no reason other than we belive it is the right thing to do.

Answer 2

What comfort do atheists have (or agnostics, as in my
case?) Depends on the atheist.
At the very least, there is no pain in death. No pleasure
either, but you won't know that! I was born in 1969. As far
as I can tell, 1967 (before I was conceived) wasn't such
a bad year. In fact, it was happier for me than 1993 (so
far, the worst year of my life) when you add up all the pluses
(or zeroes!) and subtract all the minuses.
Or maybe experience itself is recurrent, and there is a sort of naturalistic "reincarnation" (for lack of a better word.) Some atheists believe this may be the case, especially if infinite universes exist and are constantly coming into being, as some physicists suspect. (This could either be interesting or horrifying, depending on your viewpoint... not as bad as eternal torture in "Hell", though! Maybe I'll come back as a Hugh Hefner type of guy..?)
ALL of which though, begs the question:
What comfort do Christians have, knowing they have friends
and family being being sodomized with burning pitchforks
for all eternity and they'll have their memories wiped of these
people (presumably) or even worse, have their minds twisted by "God" so they'll take GLEE in watching the torture of said people for all the billions of eternities to come???

Answer 3

The comfort I will have upon death is knowing
that while alive, I lived a good and decent life
because I am a good person, not because I
wanted a reward in the end.

I will pass in comfort knowing that my children
were raised free of superstition, able to conduct
themselves of their own accord in a good way which
has a positive effect on others. I will know that I
helped others just because they needed help, not
because I expected or insisted they conform to my
ideas of how they should live.

I will know that I cared about others of all walks of
life, free of bigotry, racism and hatred.

My comfort comes in many ways. I do not seek,
need or want more than I have now. A life. One life.
To live well and right.

Answer 4

Consciousness doesn't always go hand in hand with the body.
I've been knocked quite a few times. And have no memory of it. Felt no pain.
If you haven't had the experience, you'll only make up stuff and you'll be wrong.
Our next awakening will be something new. Reality is always new and never limited to your body or your sense of identity. The reason why we feel old is a result of our programming and memory.
It's an illusion created by......us!
We're in the wrong.
We're in such a beautiful, fun experience that we can't beleive or see it.
We make up problems because it's too good to be true.

Answer 5

Athiests probably have the comfort in "logic." Believing that there can't possibly be a God, seeing as how so many terrible things happen in the world EVERY DAY. They probably feel secure knowing that everything DOESN'T happen for a reason, and Christmas and Easter are just scams that someone created to make money, and that there was no Virgin Mary, and there was no Moses and there isn't some big guy in the sky pulling all of the strings. They probably feel like "Hey, when you die, you're just DEAD, and that's IT!" So they probably don't feel guilty about doing some things that religious people do, like sex before marriage, drinking, doing drugs, etc. because they don't fear going to Heaven or Hell. They probably feel like they've got common sense and that as long as they live according to logic and "reason," they hopefully will be ok.

Answer 6

I don't need any sort of comfort about death. It's inevitable, there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm just going to try to live life in a way that satisfies me. I think nothing happens after death. That's it. No afterlife or anything. And I'm totally fine with that. I'm not welcoming death, but I'm not scared of it.

Hope that helps.

Answer 7

The comfort of being away from questions such as this. In all my years of school I have never had to do a report on something this specific. Besides the report bit is way over used.

Answer 8

Can't say I can think of any "comforts". I think I fall in the not applicable category, I don't fear death, it's the natural end for a life. If I could live forever, I probably would. But I know that everyone dies eventually, I accept it, I don't need comforting.

That help you any?

Answer 9

I don't believe in an afterlife. To comfort myself, I just think that it happens to everybody, and that it's a necessary part of life.

To tell the truth, it's not very comforting, and I don't much like the idea of dying. Even so, it's preferable to being deluded.

Answer 10

Why would I need comforts? I'm not afraid of death. I know its going to happen to every living thing. Why would humans be any different because we can think in the abstract