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How do atheists come to term with death?

an anarchist

Your local anarchist.
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
When I was an atheist I had various approaches to it.

The best was 'I didn't care before I was born' and the like.
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

In my case it's a mix of not dwelling to much on death in favor of dwelling on what I will do of my life and a calm acceptance that its inevitable and unavoidable and thus not worth much more anxiety than my crippling inability to move objects with my thoughts or find working triple A batteries when I need them.
 
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Nimos

Well-Known Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.
I personally don't care about death specifically at all. The only thing I "fear" is how it will come :) If I got a meteor in the head while walking down the street without noticing it or just died in my sleep, I honestly couldn't care less. Going through a long period of pain and suffering and seeing how those I care about have to deal with it, that is what I don't like. God or no God, it doesn't seem like this is easier for religious people than non religious ones, so God doesn't matter either in that case for me.
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
Impermanence can be unsettling and sad, but it also highlights things’ value. I will be glad to have experienced life by the time I die, and that is good enough for me. I don’t look forward to death of course (unless my body or mind are failing me in old age), and I just don’t want to suffer a lot on the way out. After that, I don’t think I’ll care. I’ll have left behind a lived life that I’m proud of.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.
Thats easy . We were certainly dead before our birth so that adequately takes care of the impossibility issues.

The very fact everyone was even born out of the abyss of death speaks volumes that put the odds squarely at a minimum of 1 out of (? ) making it a solid sure thing it's going to happen.

The fact that life occurred proves without a doubt that at some future distant point, weither it takes a day or a gazillion big bangs later, and conditions are right, the lights are bound to click on once again. And again. And again....

I really don't worry about death no more proving atheists really do exist in the proverbial foxhole giving me time to enjoy and savor living for awhile at this pit stop.
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.
As an atheist, I am focused not on death, but on life -- though I know that I will die.

But then I remember to think back to what it felt like before I was born, and the simple yet extremely profound answer is that it didn't feel at all. I don't regret not having been alive and aware for the immensely vast period of time before I was born. It did not inconvenience me. It was as nothing.

And it will be as nothing again. And why ever would I be afraid of nothing?
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

Good question. Not everyone is honest about their fears of death.

I was raised in a non-religious household, so we didn't have a religious correlated view of life after death. Rather, my mother believes that actual people are spirits and she can see them every so often and somewhat interact with her. She never got into anything religious or practice to solidify her experiences to help her, but that's the closest I think she'd believe in the afterlife. Once in a blue moon I'd hear god come from her mouth, but its so rare it gives me a pause every time I hear it.

Since I was a kid I've always had connection with nature or the living earth. So, in those respects, afterlife is a circle of life. When my aunt died 2018, I held her ashes, dropped some of them on her mother's grave, and said "there you go." I'm an animist and believe her spirit is her ashes, in the things she owned, and people she loved. Like seeing a deceased animal on the road, her spirit is gone "wooshed" out-no afterlife-but just experienced as long as loved ones remember. There are strangers who come across different places where they feel the presence of spirits (and for some people maybe that's what they mean by experiencing the presence of christ, I don't know).

I don't believe it has to do with not believing in a deity. I know there are quite a few people who believe in a afterlife without deities involved. I liken we go where we came before birth and the best way to handle death is to understand the nature of change, recycle, and letting go. Maybe living in a profound state of grief. Then, if you think of it too, not all cultures have the same view of death as some of us westerners do. It's all in perspective.
 
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osgart

Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I won't know I'm gone, so there will be no suffering after death. Makes me wonder why so many people cling to religion and ideas of eternal punishment. I'm definitely not afraid of that. Cruel Gods don't scare me!

But I often wonder if death is really the end or if an underlying eternal reality really does exist. If it does it's certainly not owned by a God. I believe such a reality does exist. But no one will ever know with out taking the plunge into death and the hereafter. I have my existential mystery. I sort of dread an eternal hereafter.

So I'm 50/50 on death. Not afraid though. Death is fascinating. Existence is fascinating. Might as well enjoy the journey.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
It's quite simple for me, really.

I don't die.

I'm not technically an atheist, but gods are irrelevant to me so I'm about as close as one can come without being one.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
J.K. Rowling (noted atheist) through fiction expresses an opinion which is described on fandom's Harry Potter section:

"...according to Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter the true Master of Death truly accepts the fact that death is inevitable, and that there are other things much worse than death." -- Master of Death

So she seems to be glad that in her opinion there aren't things which are worse than death, such as eternal torment.

I think that she's no finalized and authoritative idea whether there isn't eternal torment. There could very well be a very uncomfortable sort of afterlife that none of us have thought of, for everybody not just for bad people. It may not be something you earn. It could simply be eternal agony for everyone. The only arguments against this are the biological ones, the evidence which suggests that consciousness is tied to the state of the body and its brain. If that is not enough evidence then JK could be in for a terrible shock.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
When atheists suppose, "What if I'm wrong?" it's most likely a good deal, since the idea of an eternal hell is waning.
When theists suppose "What if I'm wrong?" it must be rather scary, no?
 

Neuropteron

Active Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

Hi,
Most Atheist and evolutionist are in denial when it come to death, although the facts are clear to them, the reality of it has no effect on them.
It is only when directly faced with death that some see the need to turn their attention to the possibility of a God and experience a complete turn around.
Whether God accepts this sudden conversion is another matter.
 

Jeremiah Ames

Well-Known Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

i no longer fear death, but somewhat anxiously await it and look forward to it (sounds odd, I know)

but I still enjoy every moment, and have no desire to hasten the time of death
(on the flip side, I have absolutely no desire to prolong life)
 

fantome profane

Anti-Woke = Anti-Justice
Premium Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.
We grieve just like anyone else when we lose a loved one.

I have had the unfortunate opportunity to observe many people after the loss of a loved one, and from what I have observed there is little difference. Believers or not. We all grieve.


As for myself, a little bit over fifty years ago I did not exist, and probably less than fifty years from now I will not exist. I accept that because I have no choice.
 

Bear Wild

Well-Known Member
J.K. Rowling (noted atheist) through fiction expresses an opinion which is described on fandom's Harry Potter section:

"...according to Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter the true Master of Death truly accepts the fact that death is inevitable, and that there are other things much worse than death." -- Master of Death

So she seems to be glad that in her opinion there aren't things which are worse than death, such as eternal torment.

I think that she's no finalized and authoritative idea whether there isn't eternal torment. There could very well be a very uncomfortable sort of afterlife that none of us have thought of, for everybody not just for bad people. It may not be something you earn. It could simply be eternal agony for everyone. The only arguments against this are the biological ones, the evidence which suggests that consciousness is tied to the state of the body and its brain. If that is not enough evidence then JK could be in for a terrible shock.

So do you believe that everyone is going to end up in eternal torment? Really? If that is the case then it really does not matter what you believe does it?
 

Bear Wild

Well-Known Member
Hi,
Most Atheist and evolutionist are in denial when it come to death, although the facts are clear to them, the reality of it has no effect on them.
It is only when directly faced with death that some see the need to turn their attention to the possibility of a God and experience a complete turn around.
Whether God accepts this sudden conversion is another matter.
I am an evolutionist and I know I am not in denial of death. I deal with people who die. Those that are afraid to die do turn to anything that will ease their brains. Those who accept death don't. You seem to be confused to what an evolutionist is. Let me help. An evolutionist is someone who believes in evolution whether they are pagan, Christian, Buddhist, Hindus, Jewish, Islam, and even atheists.
 

Bear Wild

Well-Known Member
As someone who was raised from the get go to believe in the afterlife, I still retain that belief. When mourning the death of a loved one, my belief in the afterlife helps. However, I still sometimes become suddenly frightened by the idea of death; it will feel like I’m realizing for the first time again that I am going to die and so is everyone I care about.
The prophet Baha’u’llah stated this about the afterlife (paraphrasing). If God allowed man to see what lies after death, they would see the joys that awaits them and do nothing but rush to their death. So God has given us this fear of death. This line of reasoning comforts me when the prospect of death becomes an internal existential crisis.
So, as someone who believes in the afterlife, I am often quite terrified of death. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

No one should rush to their death. Accept death yes but live!. The stark reality to this world is no one could be born if no one dies. We are all given a precious chance to live. We should live in harmony and not rush to kill or die and take life for granted. What awaits in the otherworld is never known and does not matter for us here and now.
 

SigurdReginson

Grēne Mann
Premium Member
For me, it's the same reason why I'm not bothered every time I reach an age milestone. I didn't care when I turned 20 or 30, and I still ain't gonna care at 40. Life is precious, and I treasure every breath I take, and internalizing the fact that it very much will go away if I blink - so I keep my metaphorical eyes wide open and live every waking moment.

This fact makes it so I can live life in the present without struggling against what's natural. Aging is natural. Death is natural. Better to strive to eke out every bit of joy from life that I can and to live a happy, healthy life now then to live in fear or in denial of something that everyone has to face down the road. That's my own take, at least.
 
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