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are you afraid of death?

being atheist or agnostic we know that chriatainality and angels and demons gods and devils and most likely an afterlife are all just wishful thinking. seeing as we know that death is indeed the end for us does that idea frightend you ? what are your thoughts on death ? personaly i gotta admitt it scares me . i know there is nothing i can do to avoid it . im so sad when a relative dies knowing ill never see them again. and this is why i think so many people wanna believe in a god and heaven. we want so badly to believe us and our loved ones will live on that many do so just to comfort themselfs. your thoughts ?

DavidDeLa89 6 Dec 28
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371 comments (151 - 175)

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2

I think about this quite often. Perhaps too much. I certainly feared death when I had a heart attack a little over a year ago. Before that, Death was just a word on a page. I think it was mainly terror of never having been in a hospital as a patient before. That and the fear of my family finding my porn collection and various other "accoutrements". It was kind of like my worst nightmare come to life and had no control over it.
Now, since then, I've had a "Leaving Las Vegas" experience that I somehow made it back from. I truly wasn't coming back - I was gone. But my dad convinced me to come back home and be there for my kids. So I did. But I REALLY wanted to die back then. (my wife asked for a divorce, my dog died, money stress, work stress and a car accident didn't help my already tenuous state of mind) Now, I'm kind of quietly amused by it all.
Seeing how organized religion flourishes by selling the scam of "eternal life" in heaven just pisses me off to no end. And as far as I'm concerned, when I die I won't even know I'm dead. I'll just be dead. No consciousness. So it's all just a big cosmic "wet fart" amusement park ride. Fine then, I'll enjoy myself as much as I can on the journey. Because when it's over...it's effin' over. IMHO.

2

Not afraid of death just afraid of my children being taken care of when I die

2

I assume that when I die, I will be doing the same thing I was doing before I was born.

So, no.

SCal Level 7 Dec 28, 2018

Mark Twain said something like that.

@SKH78 I love Mark Twain.

2

There’s no reason to fear it since you have no control over it. Why spend time living thinking about death.

Mist Level 1 Dec 22, 2018
2

No because being dead is easy living is hard

Lol...50 Cent once said :"Death gotta be easy 'cuz life is hard"

I bet you haven't tried it out to find out if it's really true. lol

@DanyBrice Twice actually so it’s your turn now let’s see if you’re better than me ?

2

Of dying, yes. But once dead then either I’ll still be conscious or not. If conscious yeah! If not then I would know I’m dead....

2

I can remember being very afraid of death around the ages of 8 to 12. I remember some science fiction movie referencing "the end of time", which terrified me in the same way. Then I seemed to grow out of it. I think I have dealt with the deaths of loved ones fairly well; for most of them, I feel like I could go and visit them any time. The sad part is knowing I can't. When I was 39 I got food poisoning, and didn't realize you could feel like that. I had gotten very sick before, but this was off the charts. It was as if an alarm had gone off in my brain, and then in my entire body, telling me if I didn't do something very, very soon, that was it (I went in an ambulance, and the hospital put 4-5 iv bags of fluid into me). Fear of THAT feeling has lingered.

2

No

2

I'm not so sure about what you mean by an "end". While we may die in this universe, and this universe will be enveloped by the heat death, I am not so sure if it would be the end of everything. Physicists are still scratching the surface of what our universe(s) are made of, much less whether our death is truly the end. I think that maybe when this universe "ends", another will "begin", and life will continue with the same processes in another universe like this one. But that's just my hypotheses. I am certainly sad that ,in any event, we will most certainly not see our friends and loved ones again in an afterlife that transcends the metaphysical processes that we can observe in science.

There is no scientific evidence for continuation of our consciousness after our bodies quit. All we know is that energy does not go away. It can take on different forms and travel to different locations, but does not disappear. Our brains produce energy when we think. That energy keeps going. I have known people who had vivid dreams before they died unexpectedly - dreams in which deceased family members came to them and told them they would pass on soon. I don't know what to make of it. We just don't know what happens when our bodies give out. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a huge tree with swings for children and lots of homes for birds.

2

Comfort is certainly a reason people elect to suppress their doubts. It's painful to think about. But I simply can't allow myself to live delusional. That said, it does frighten me. This is it. We weren't here for billions of years, then we're here for a little while, and then we're gone for the rest of eternity. That reality sucks. But this is why it's so important we live happily. Also, I found a quote from Carl Sagan that really helps...
"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.”

Wonderful quote really. I connect with what you say about being unable to live being disillusioned. Honestly that is me all over, I cannot ignore the reality I am faced with maybe life would be easier if I could but I never will.

...Thanx,nice guidepost- I admire CS
more in time...

2

It used to terrify me when I was little. After a lot of thought on it I realized there was no point in stressing over it. It will happen eventually and my consciousness will cease. When that happens I won't be around to care and all I can hope for is that the people I leave behind will be better for knowing me and remember me fondly.

2

No I am not afraid to die

2

I think that once you accept that there's nothing else after you die, then it only becomes hard because you don't want to leave your loved ones or not see anyone again. There's no point being afraid of things that are inevitable.

tj509 Level 4 Oct 7, 2018
2

I don't welcome it, but I hope I can face it well.

2

I’m afraid of dying but not of being dead. I have no wish to cease to exist, or suffering through some sort of death throws, but I could care less about worrying about what happens afterwards.

2

I’m not afraid of death and I think the reason why I’m not is because when you think about, eternal life no matter where you spend it would have too be the worst thing imaginable because after a while you’ll have experienced everything there is, at that point why even go on so I do sorta like the idea of simply not existing and there’s just something poetic about my body being used as nutrition by the same world that I’ve some small hand in destroying

JJay Level 2 Oct 6, 2018
2

...ur loved ones live on thruogh u
what I emulate of the loved one/thier views
triumphs;interests;traits-these I carry(filtered).
having no regrets;leaving the earth
better then I found it- makes death normal
part of life??

2

I think, there is no need to worry everything related to the religious ideas about the death,
C'oz many Religious idea (Especially Christians idea) tried to design human mind illusion, fear, and uncomfortable thoughts about the death.

For me; I'm not afraid to die

2

I have no fear of death, but there is a fear of dying. I only fear the pain of prolonged suffering prior to death.

2

Dying, yes. Death, no.

I'm just worried I'll bite the dust before the final installments to the books I read are released.

2

As A athiest no when your dead your dead nothing to fear

2

I don’t want to cease to exist but if you don’t exist how could you be aware of it?

2

Am I afraid of what's after death? No. Am I afraid to die? You bet! Hate to end the journey now that I'm just starting to get the hang of it!

2

Birth and death; are like waves in an ocean. Just the occasional awaeness of the universe beholding itself..

Cool.the way it should be

2

Afraid ? No.
When you're dead, you don't know you're dead.
Same goes for stupid.

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