How did it feel before you were born?

I dread and fear it, but not because I will cease to exist, but because I'm in love with living.

I will have to say that at times I share your thoughts. One thing that provided a little solace was a tv spot that Robin Williams did (ironically shortly before he committed suicide - of course it would have been difficult to be shortly after). The tag line at the end was to the effect that life (for the species) is the equivalent of a never ending story and your life is the opportunity to add a verse or chapter to the story. Personally, when I need something to focus on I think that if there is actually any purpose to our existence it is far bigger than the "mere" concept of god encompasses. Any purpose would have to be the same for the entire universe and thus I choose to think that my life is the universes way of experiencing itself. As Jackson Browne said in a song: "the only thing that survives, is the way we live our lives."

Remember how things were before you were born? That's how it will be after you pass.

How do you know your existence will end? I do not mean in the sense of heaven or as a religious argument. What I mean is having not died how do you know what happens? If you want to believe as apparently many Atheists do that death is the end of all that is your right but it is a belief in that their is no proof. Absence of knowledge is not proof. The way I see it why fear the unknowable? I fear the pain possible in the manner of my death. I fear the pain it may cause others being one who abhors causing others pain.

There is no point in dreading the inevitable. No one gets out alive. We all know, one day, we are going to die. Knowing that, make every day count. Do what you love. Cut toxic people out of your life, family be damned. Work on being the best at something. Take care of yourself, be smart, sensible, have a cookie. Learn something new, every day. Sing, out loud, every where. I have never stood at a coffin, looking at the deceased & heard, "they could have vacuumed more." Enjoy the day, plan for the future, kiss toads, tell grating people to feck off in no uncertain terms and make damn sure the Grim Reaper has to run to catch you.

Dread and fear of dying are good thing when they make one appreciate the life one has right now and inform choices one makes to stay healthy and live well for a long time. Attention on now, not a future fantasy is the gift you are giving yourself. Celebrate!

I'm puzzled how anyone can be that sure about anything. I certainly am not!

Anyway, Shakespeare's Hamlet of course reversed the dread:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

"It depends".

I find that people who dread their mortality as atheists probably dreaded it as theists. They just had comforting lies to paper it over with, and don't now. So the problem isn't caused by deconversion, it's simply exposed by it.

Personaly I never dreaded it when I was a believer and if anything my unbelief made me even more accepting of my mortality.

You might want to read philosopher Ernst Becker, particularly Denial of Death, to get a little perspective on this. It's a particularly powerful book given that it was written while he was dying. The short version: the whole story of human history is the story of people's immortality projects, their attempts to deny, cheat, and circumvent death.

The only general advice I can convey is to consistently deal in reality (always a work in progress; our brain really doesn't like reality). Remind yourself that mortality is not just the fact of death, it is a (for lack of a better term) "scope" for your existence. A lot of existential angst is tangled up in the desire to accomplish something -- to do rather than to be. To perform. To excel. To triumph. To demostrate proficiency and to acheive success.

All of these strivings are rather poorly defined and we're always failing at them, and all of them are designed, not to do good, so much as to make sure we leave an impression. That we will be remembered even after we are gone.

I find it liberating to realize that none of that is necessary, that I can inhabit the present moment, leave as little as possible unsaid to my loved ones, be as kind as possible, and try to ease other's way in life -- and it is sufficient, even if not as acknowledged or appreciated as it "should" be. Just do my bit ... don't worry about being lauded now or later for it, don't worry about how indispensible I imagine myself to be. The dread of death is in large part (for me anyway) an ego inflation -- the notion that I'm more important than I actually am. When I'm less important, my sense of accomplishment and adequacy increases. Things become "doable" if you will.

Just my $0.02 plus inflation for what it's worth. You're on the right track; just keep walking into the light of knowledge -- self knowledge, knowledge of reality -- embrace it in all its beauty and absurdity and fragility and impermanence. In time, you'll find peace,

The idea that you weren’t afraid of death because of what awaited was based on nothing whatsoever and sold to you by snake oil salesmen.

Who wants to live like that?

Instead it’s the very acceptance of this fact, that allows me realize how special this happy accident is, not only of life, but the consciousness and security we have that allows us to ponder such things, aspiring to not waste it and live it to the fullest, before our molecules and atoms are recycled into the earth... and later... through the cosmos.

Just my thoughts. Hope it helps

Congratulations on overcoming Pascal's Wager! I will only say this: was the nothingness before you were born so terrible? Then neither will be the emptiness that comes after. It's really only the transition that makes me nervous, but there's not a lot to be done about it.

Excellent question!!! I believe we all fear the unknown. If most theist would be honest even though they claim to have "Hell Insurance" ...they still don't want to die. Even those guys will have no existence after death..."ashes to ashes, dust to dust"

My best advise to myself is to enjoy life as much as possible and consider death as a sort of time to go to sleep after a great day. ?

What are you afraid of? I don't fear death because I know that no matter what, I have lived a good life. I sometimes wish I could live forever just to see how it all turns out. Then sometimes I get afraid that I will see how it all turns out in the 80 to 100 years I do get. But my death in and of itself holds no power to make me sfraid.

Not sure anyone can know. We all deal with death and finality in different ways. Some may become more comfortable with it while others may never fully reconcile it.

No clue.

When you come to the realization that there is nothing to dread and fear. Life just terminates and one ceases to exist. You will be dead but you will not be aware that you are dead. You will no longer exist and will not be aware of anything. I think your black graphic is a good analogy.

I’ve been an atheist just about my whole life and the sense of dread over the finality of death has never gone away completely. Rather than dwell on it, I use it as inspiration to live my life to the fullest.

One thing to consider is that for billions of years before you were born, you did not exist. It’s really not a big deal to return to that.

It depends on the person. With some, it is simply the full realization that it is going to happen, that there is nothing you can do to stop it, and that it is simply the end of existence as a biological entity. With others, it is having lived a full life, or having atained one's major goals. With others, it is simply reaching the stage of being at peace with oneself.

Death is not something to fear is just a fact just like gravity. Energy is recycled perpetuates the next instrument that absorbs the energy.

It's coming eventually, no matter what you do. Worrying never gets one anywhere. So don't worry.The best thing is to make your days count.Enjoy your life while it lasts.

I am learning about the roots of the English language right now. It beats learning about mere speculation of the afterlife.

We don't have any warm and cozy promise of a perpetual postmortem party, but on the other hand there's no eternal torture either. There's simply oblivion. There's nothing to fear because it's the end of awareness.

There's too much to experience while you can. Don't squander what brief fling with happiness this life can offer in worrying about what happens next.

I cannot say I think about it much. I think I fear dying, more of the process of dying. But being dead doesn't scare me personally. Of I imagine myself as dead, I feel disappointed that I didn't get to do more.

I can only speak from my personal experience, but I don't think contemplating eternal nothingness ever gets easy. For me, there is some solace knowing that I'm going where every other living thing has had to go. It's the great equalizer.

I don't think one has anything to do with the other.
Worrying the future is something some do, dont, or learn not to.
Being dead is nothing....literally.
Dying, well that can be excruciating in a few ways - but we do have options.