How do atheists come to term with death?

[Mock Turtle]

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 think I was about six or seven when I fully realised that we all die (and that such was the end for us all), and I can recall the shock that this caused. This perhaps explains why so many are keen for there to be any afterlife. As I matured, I just accepted that life and death are what happens in the real world, and whatever I did in this life would finally end - without anything further happening, apart from the legacy we leave.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Believe it or not, the Bible supports both sides of this issue.

I disagree. Show me.

 

[fantome profane]

Most Atheist and evolutionist are in denial when it come to death

I believe most humans are in denial about death, (and most will deny this).

(perhaps many non-humans are in denial about death as well, hard to say)

 

[RestlessSoul]

From ancient times the saying comes,
"There is no death; there is no life."
Indeed, the skies are cloudless
And the river waters clear.

Death poem (Jisei) of Toshimoto, samurai.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I believe most humans are in denial about death, (and most will deny this).

(perhaps many non-humans are in denial about death as well, hard to say)

I wonder if the awareness of death is peculiar only to humans? Perhaps that is the root of all our sorrow.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

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.

Do I look forward to it? Off course not.

I'm I "afraid" of it? Not particularly actually. The idea of "not existing" is... weird, sure. I'm more afraid of HOW I will die then about the fact that I will die some day.

Nevertheless, I accept it as an inevitable fact of life. Everything dies. Even the sun, eventually.
All we can do, is make the best of it while we are alive and enjoy living. And try to leave this place better then how it was when we "entered" it, for the generations that come after us - our own children.

To the extent that I am "scared" of death, it is more about dieing "to soon". I'ld like to live till +80 years and not die of some heart attack or whatever at 50.

I don't want to become much older though, unless my body allows for it.
I'm more afraid of spending the last decade or two in some "old people prison" while in a wheel chair with bad eyes, bad ears, deteriorating brain, etc... then I am of actually dieing.

 

[blü 2]

Believe it or not, the Bible supports both sides of this issue.

And it is hardly the only issue where different books in the Bible express different contradictory ideas.

Dear old Ecclesiastes! My favorite bible verses are in there.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Dear old Ecclesiastes! My favorite bible verses are in there.

And Pete Seeger's

 

[SigurdReginson]

Believe it or not, the Bible supports the atheists’ POV, on this issue. (It’s probably the only one!) Jehovah God told Adam after his rebellion, “You will return to the ground .... to dust you will return “ — Genesis 3:19

Unfortunately, even among those who appreciate the Bible, very few believe this idea. Most think of and believe in an immediate afterlife, but the Bible doesn’t promise this... it’s promise is that of a future resurrection. — Acts of the Apostles 24:15

So what is the condition of the dead? They “know nothing.”(Ecclesiastes 9:5) They have ‘returned to the ground.’ They are “sleeping” — John 11:11-14

As, indeed, most atheists believe.

But according to Acts 24 & John 5:28-29, even the “unrighteous” will be resurrected, i.e., given life again. (The “judgement “ they receive will be on their actions after their resurrection.) So the dead ‘unrighteous’ atheists, when brought back to life, will be pleasantly surprised, I think. They too will experience the goodness of Jehovah.

Most everyone will.....unless they were / are “incorrigibly wicked.”

(IMO, from what I understand of the Scriptures as I’ve been taught,)

This is an interesting interpretation for the day of judgement that I've never heard before... How did you come to this conclusion? Is this something you've always believed from the get go, did you learn of this from someone/some place else, or did you come to this conclusion yourself through analyzing scripture?

 

[Revoltingest]

Yeah, that's a big priority for me too. I have a huge trust fund between myself and five siblings and being unmarried if anything happens to me my part gets distributed to the others. I've thought about marrying a friend of mine so she can manage my trust fund and take care of my mom and her parents, and retire if she wanted to take care of her kid. This stuff is tricky.

Tis wise to plan so that you can reach from
beyond the grave to achieve your goals.

 

[SalixIncendium]

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.

 

[Samael_Khan]

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 don't think about it actually. I just know that it will happen eventually. I did have an internal crisis where I used to wake up and panic about my parents dying but that happened both when I was religious and as an atheist. It was something I had to deal with and it has been dealt with. I don't know whether there is an afterlife or not so hopefully there is one. If not then I will not be conscious to care.

 

[NewGuyOnTheBlock]

I believe that there is nothing after death. I simply accept that those who pass on, are gone from this world. As I was once a theist, I find that I have no more grief in their passing now then when I believed. I think it actually helps to bring closure accepting their permanent absence than wistful thinking of seeing them again someday; and it is a relief to have no fear or worry that they may be suffering eternal torment if they lived a life or made mistakes that religion said would destine them to it. Personally, Details aside and in the long run, I don't think that we grapple with death or loss any differently than any other human being, regardless of beliefs.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

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.

For me, with no expectation of an afterlife whatsoever, it is the stark and glaring fact that the state of death poses absolutely no danger at all to the dead. I learned long ago that if there is no possibility of being harmed, then there is nothing at all to fear.

As a (perhaps mundane) example, "haunted houses" (the ones where you walk through and people try to frighten you with themselves or other objects) do not phase me in the slightest. The actors in play aren't allowed to hurt you - so what is there to fear? I literally can't fear the situation - I find it utterly impossible for that exact reason. No harm is going to come to me - so how could I possibly fear?

And that is as I expect it is in death. There is nothing - no harm, no anxiety, no complications, no sensory input, no thoughts, no "me" in any sense of that word. How could that be scary? There is literally no danger capable of presenting itself to something non-existent - and that is what I expect "I" will become. It seems entirely simple to me, and I can only barely empathize with those who fear death itself.

Now - do I fear the process of coming to my demise? Yes. I do not look forward to that. But the ultimate end and not existing into eternity? I just don't see what there is to fear there.

 

[ChristineM]

. I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

Personally death doesn't bother me, life always kills you in the end so why worry about it.

And now a short story.

The second first law of thermodynamics informs me that in a closed system all energy/matter will continue infinitely. I therefore know for example, at least some of the atoms in my body have in the past helped make other life, and will help make other life in the future, in this way we are all made of dead people...

My mind ends when i die but the rest of me can help build worlds.


Errors corrected

 

[Revoltingest]

From ancient times the saying comes,
"There is no death; there is no life."
Indeed, the skies are cloudless
And the river waters clear.

Death poem (Jisei) of Toshimoto, samurai.

Death awaits us all
To worry does us no good
Enjoy the bacon

 

[HonestJoe]

I’m curious how atheists emotionally deal with the prospect of death.

A lot more like theists than most would imagine I expect (and therefore, often just as badly). Your thoughts aren't much different to mine and I suspect similar to most other people. They're framed in different beliefs, backgrounds and experiences of course but the core concepts are essentially the same.

Fear of death is one of the consequences humans suffer for developing an imagination (balanced by lots of advantages of course), a natural extension of out healthy fear of the unknown. I think we all deal with it in our own ways, often not very good ones such as ignoring the whole thing or imagining some positive afterlife or next step of some kind. I'm not sure any of that really helps that much since we're unlikely to be able to entirely convince ourselves that everything will be fine.

I've never been convinced by any idea of an afterlife, especially not one we can have any kind of certainty about. I'm also concerned that the idea of some infinite afterlife would render the time we have in live insignificant ad irrelevant by comparison. I prefer to focus on the here-and-now, making this life as positive as possible for myself, others around me and those who will be living after I've gone. As long as I can make the world at least a little better by the time I die, it doesn't really matter what happens to me afterwards.

Hopefully I'll just get a well earned lie down.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Death awaits us all
To worry does us no good
Enjoy the bacon

Would have preferred a limerick tbh.

 

[Revoltingest]

Would have preferred a limerick tbh.

I've already composed one today.......
The era post twenty sixteen
Was really the best ever seen
No one was bored
Frubal counts soared
And staff lavatories were clean

(They're harder than haiku.)

 

[Revoltingest]

Personally death doesn't bother me, life always kills you in the end so why worry about it.

And now a short story.

The first second law of thermodynamics informs me that in a closed system all energy/matter will continue infinitely. I therefore know for example, at least some of the atoms in my body have in the past helped make other life, and will help make other life in the future, in this way we are all made of dead people...

My mind ends when i die but the rest of me can help build worlds.

Fixed.
The 2nd law says that the closed system will
run down, ie, no work can be done.

Gawd, we pedants can be so annoying.