<p>I mean, I know that everyone dies, but when I think about it and become too afraid. I was thinking about it a minute go when I realized that one day I really am going to die. One day, I really am going to be in a coffin all alone in the dark, with no thoughts or feelings. It'll all be over, and the world will keep on living. The thought of my life ending, for the first time in my life, scares me. I'm an Atheist. I don't believe in heaven or hell. I don't believe that there's a loving God standing there to greet me after my time on Earth ends. After I die, it's just...over.</p>
<p>I'm not suicidal, encase you may have come to that conclusion after reading the title. I'm just, for the first time in my life, afraid of death. I mean, I could die any moment and it'd all be over. I'll never be able listen to music or hug my friends and family ever again. I could actually imagine myself lying in a coffin. This scares me so, so much.</p>
<p>I used to think that, but I realized something important: Don't think about it and I'll be perfectly fine. Then again, I am a Christian, but once in a great while I get all doubtful and panicky.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is time to reconsider your atheism. I was extremely afraid of death when I was an atheist, too. As thrilling as it may seem to a young person rebelling against the world, it is ultimately a crippling, black, soul-killing worldview. And long as you think about life in this way, this ugly feeling is not likely to leave you.</p>
<p>Most people sooner or later feel the dread you are describing when they feel the reality of their mortality. You've just been hit earlier than most (I'm assuming you're a young person). You get used to it after a while. Not believing in an afterlife gives you the advantage of realizing that you have to make the most of your life and treat other people well, because this is the only chance you get.</p>
<p>"Not believing in an afterlife gives you the advantage of realizing that you have to make the most of your life and treat other people well, because this is the only chance you get."</p>
<p>OR, one may live life simply for its physical pleasures and treat others like crap, because ultimately nothing matters.</p>
<p>i don't understand atheists..why not TRY and develop faith in god just in case there really is a heaven or hell after death? Why risk it and more than likely, go to hell(if there's one)? </p>
<p>Anyway..my biggest fear is waking up in my coffin after i'm buried, not being able to breathe and dying a slow , awful painful death.LMAO- weird i know- but it scares the hell outa me. I wanna get cremated..</p>
<p>"i don't understand atheists..why not TRY and develop faith in god just in case there really is a heaven or hell after death? Why risk it and more than likely, go to hell(if there's one)?"</p>
<p>This is what it commonly known as Pascal's Wager. It serves its purpose at times, but it is an incredibly simplistic view of faith and Salvation, at least in the traditional Christian and Muslim faiths. For instance, according to Catholic Christianity and orthodox Islam, even being a Christian or Muslim is not a guarentee of Salvation. You could believe in God and go to church/mosque every week of your life and still go to Hell, if you did not behave as a proper Christian/Muslim in your daily life, dealings with people, etc.</p>
<p>The ultimate counter to Pascal's Wager, "But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? Each week we just make God madder and madder. " - Homer Simpson</p>
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Perhaps it is time to reconsider your atheism
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<p>So was a primary reason for your religion your fear of death? As a deist, I'd just as well not discount the idea of an afterlife but also not put all my eggs in one basket (Christianity).</p>
<p>"So was a primary reason for your religion your fear of death?"</p>
<p>Not really. My initial break from atheism came because I was miserable living under that worldview, and I came to Christianity well after I had abandoned atheism for greener pastures. </p>
<p>Now I am able to discredit atheism merely on philosophical terms (based on pure reason). It doesn't hold up to the Cosmological, Teleological, and Ontological Arguments. (This said, there are many instances of weak Cosmological, Teleological, and Ontological Arguments -- reading one or two examples from what are three very broad fields of arguments, based on different premises, should not settle the case for the atheist... unless, of course, it does and you are convinced.)</p>
<p>Actually, I go to church every week with my parents. :( Physics got to me...it makes more sense than some theory of god creating this world in a week.</p>
<p>I feel the same way as you. I just hope that medical research is going to accelerate enough to the point that we'll be able to radically extend our own lifespans. </p>
<p>It sounds almost impossible with our current technology - but who knows?</p>
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Physics got to me...it makes more sense than some theory of god creating this world in a week.
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<p>The beauty of physics is that it is so intricate that I wonder how someone could study science and then argue that everything happened by chance. Seems very illogical to me. At the same time, it seems illogical to examine life and records of the past and assume that a nurturing Christian God did indeed create the universe in a week and has a master plan. I'm hoping there's a happy medium where there is indeed some all-knowing creator that set things into motion and that this is only a phase in eternity.</p>
<p>It seems like a number of people in this thread have ascribed atheism a sort of underlying cynicism which I really think is unfortunate. I don't think atheism, like religion, should be forced on anyone, nor do I think it, like religion, is right for everyone. That being said, I've been an atheist for a while now and I feel great about it, it's instilled within me a will to make the most of my fleeting time (as I type on a CC messageboard... >_<) here on earth so I can be remembered by those that will succeed me.</p>