Atheist, Are'nt you scared?

[The Last Conformist]

Interesting, so far according to this poll:

25.6% of atheists are afraid of dieing
72.7% of believers are afraid of dieing

As an atheist I am not afraid of dieing.

Clearly, believers are saner than atheists.

 

[betazed]

I'm scared of unbearable pain - but dying, no.

Correct. I am scared of what I do not know; in what hideous method i will die. But if I knew that one day I will die in a known process that is not too painful then I am not scared of it at all.

But, I will still be sad because I think living beats the hell out of dying. IMHO, many posters here are confusing this sadness with fear.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Interestingly enough, if I had to chose between going down peacefully or violently I would chose the latter. Pain is good like a bad tasting medicine (it keeps you alive), but towards the end it could well be "savoured" as the last moments of life.

 

[Mise]

Given your username, it doesn't surprise me that you have a taste for masochism.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Given your username, it doesn't surprise me that you have a taste for masochism.

Don't get the wrong idea, I don't like pain, only on the way out it wouldn't matter (but who knows, I might be a coward)

 

[Gothmog]

Not exactly an atheist, but close enough for the purposes of this thread. I don't believe that anyone knows.

Fear is the wrong word, I feel deep sadness when I think of death. I love my life, I love my self, I will miss it all very much and I have no idea at all what to expect when I die.

Similarly, when I have been touched by death, I've been deeply sad. Not for the one who died, but for those left behind.

Best case scenario it is like a dreamless sleep because I, like YNCS, cannot imagine an infinity that I could deal with. I'm just not equiped for eternity.

There are various possibilities for my life that I fear, but I don't know enough about what happens next to be afraid of it.

 

[Silica_Pathways]

Why should i be ? Maybe i'll just respawn in other dimension, maybe i'll just be dead, but i don't really care about death for know

 

[Renata]

My grandfather was an atheist for all intents and purposes -- he had a rather complicated philosophy and spirituality, but he didn't believe in a capital-G God, and he didn't believe in persistence of the soul after death. He died a few weeks ago at age 87 after having dangerous fainting spells for a few days, and told my whole family the day before he died that the only thing he was afraid of was that my grandmother would be upset. Anyone who wants to call him a liar can shove it where the sun don't shine.

As for me, I'm too confused on both halves of the question (scared or not, believer or not) to give a decent answer.

Renata

 

[Paalikles]

I am not scared of dying, since I will be reborn as a holy cow.

Seriously though- we all die eventually. I hope to live long and all that, but so does most people.

To me there is no more reason to fear death than it is for a Christian or Muslim or Jew, etc etc. So I voted second option. Not because I try to come off as a tough guy. But I see no extra reasons for an atheist to be scared, and that is my message with that vote.

Edit 23:44 on March 07. 2005:

Read this last page, and found that Gothmog put it into writing in a very good way

Originally posted by Gothmog:


(...)
Fear is the wrong word, I feel deep sadness when I think of death. I love my life, I love my self (...)

Similarly, when I have been touched by death, I've been deeply sad. Not for the one who died, but for those left behind.

(...)

 

[Syterion]

Are you arguing that people don't have free will?

Don't put words in my mouth. I'm saying that if your god exists then they don't have free will.

 

[Shadylookin]

Woudln't that be DNA or Jeans or something?

I know that who I am is determined by DNA and my life experiences, it's the bible that claims otherwise.

 

[cgannon64]

Similarly, when I have been touched by death, I've been deeply sad. Not for the one who died, but for those left behind.

Indeed.

Syterion: I acknowledge there is a logical problem, but I beleive its something that can be worked out. Still, I have not thought about it too much.

shadylookin: I'd still like you to answer my question of whether people who create you are responsible for your mistakes in any meaningful way.

 

[Perfection]

Interesting, so far according to this poll:

25.6% of atheists are afraid of dieing
72.7% of believers are afraid of dieing

These are very much interesting resusts, I wonder what the cause is.

Here's a few ideas:

1. The fact that it comes from one of the more outspoken antiathiestic posters and the title "Atheist, Are'nt you scared?" has biased the athiests.

2. Those who fear death are more likely to turn to religion to help cope with thier fears.

3. Religious docterines tend pay more attention to death and the eternal suffering that befall the wicked and thus the members are more likely to fear death, while most athiestic philosophies are much more centered on what one should do in the here and now instead of death so the members concentrate more on living.

 

[Rhymes]

These are very much interesting resusts, I wonder what the cause is.

Here's a few ideas:

1. The fact that it comes from one of the more outspoken antiathiestic posters and the title "Atheist, Are'nt you scared?" has biased the athiests.

2. Those who fear death are more likely to turn to religion to help cope with thier fears.

3. Religious docterines tend pay more attention to death and the eternal suffering that befall the wicked and thus the members are more likely to fear death, while most athiestic philosophies are much more centered on what one should do in the here and now instead of death so the members concentrate more on living.

I would rather say that 22 (number of believers) is not a significative number of subjects for a survey

It has allready dropped from 75% to 41%...

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Aren't you at least a little tine bit scared of your afterlife? If what you say is true, then when you die, there is nothingness, so doesn't that scare you at all?

2 rules:

No flame!

Tell honestly!

I mean it for that one! Saying you are not scared of something like this will not make you brave, IMHO. Please answer honestly!

Poll comming.

No, I'm not scared.

Everyone dies eventually. Pinning one's hopes on some fabulous afterlife is no escape from death. I'd rather make the most of life while I'm alive than hope for something unlikely after I'm dead.

Besides, how do you know the afterlife is so good? It could be worse than this life.

 

[Perfection]

I would rather say that 22 (number of believers) is not a significative number of subjects for a survey

It has allready dropped from 75% to 41%...

Gagh, all that work, and it just was bad data.
Oh well, it still beefed up my postcount.

 

[cgannon64]

These are very much interesting resusts, I wonder what the cause is.

Here's a few ideas:

1. The fact that it comes from one of the more outspoken antiathiestic posters and the title "Atheist, Are'nt you scared?" has biased the athiests.

2. Those who fear death are more likely to turn to religion to help cope with thier fears.

3. Religious docterines tend pay more attention to death and the eternal suffering that befall the wicked and thus the members are more likely to fear death, while most athiestic philosophies are much more centered on what one should do in the here and now instead of death so the members concentrate more on living.

4. Athiests are generally overly proud of their intellect, and so refuse to admit fear.

 

[bloodofages]

I am not afraid of dying, cause we all will dies someday. No one can say how long they get to live this life. 9yrs,24 or 190? Who knows. Why waste what time you got in this life worrying when you are going to die?

 

[Rhymes]

Well, there is one thing I'm afraid of more then dying: To see an other one of Fox's god thread go past 10 pages

 

[The Last Conformist]

4. Athiests are generally overly proud of their intellect, and so refuse to admit fear.

I don't think it's actually true that atheists are more proud of their intellects than believers are, on average, but even if that be so, your argument doesn't make sense. Intelligence has little to do with fear.