Once you trust the evidence. Are you atheist because the evidence shows that god is not only folklore but not necessary for existence or because of some other reason?

Fear is only a lack of confidence or at least a doubt in your confidence. Read more, learn more, understand more and pretty soon the fear will dissipate.

Update: well I think I misread your question. Haha. Fear of death, I believe is from fear of not accomplishing the life you want. What are you doing to make yourself better than you were the day before? What are you doing to achieve the things that you find are important in your life? Realizing that our existence will end is awesome, because now you know that this is it and procrastination is all you have to over come.

Tell me though, did you not fear death before atheism?

For me it's the how more than the inevitability. I know that is not much help. Now you can worry about that too. I'll just shut up. ?

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

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. ?

Your Art lives a long time after you are gone. Everything that you have done. Everyone you have touched. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. Yes it is true that when you meet the equal or opposite force you will no longer exist. But I am willing to bet that you have effected/affected several lives. Your actions live on. Your offspring, if you have, live on. We are all in motion, and we are all apart of this human condition and the consciousness there of.

I don't think there are any guarantees that you'll feel better, but these ideas might help:

• think about what it would be like to live forever and how awful eternity would be
• future nonexistence doesn't harm you now, and it's like the you tomorrow is a new person (just with your memories); I consider each moment to be a new person, just very similar, but whose condition can't harm any predecessor
• death is nothing more scary than sleep; when you go to sleep, you lose consciousness for most of the night (except for dreams) and, if during your sleep you were to die, you'd never even know — no harm befalls you, because there's no you to experience harm or to contemplate nonexistence

Live a fulfilling life and you won't dread death.

You may always be concerned about death. Just don't forget to live.

Until science unlocks the secret of biological immorality, death is a reality for everyone. My suggestion is to not waste time worrying about death, rather spend your time living.

All wonderful answers, so all I can add is that once you realize that "what happens on earth, stays on earth" you might think about the joy you have brought to those you leave behind, and take comfort in the fact that they will think of you warmly, perhaps appreciate and carry on your good deeds, philosophy, passions, causes, etc., so that you will live on in their memories. No one is really gone until they are forgotten. Live your life now, best you can and make an impression, rather than wait for some rapture that never comes.

If you dread or fear death you may not want to be athiest!

I figure it will be the same as it was billions of years before I was born, one day I will close my eyes for the last time.
Any fear or worries will be gone. I won't know I'm dead, and I won't miss being alive.

I really don’t think the two are related. I know of atheists that do fear death.

that is not a requirement; just because you don't think (or don't know) what lies beyond - if anything - the end of this life is noting to ever treat lightly. Being Agnostic or Atheist doesn't mean you no loger have questions, or no longer fear the umknown. And I guarantee you that 'peopel of Faith' end up having the same feelings; they just fall back on an unprovable dogma to try and placate their dears. But those fears stil remain.

My suggestion? Try instead to focus on the life you have now. Make is great, and full of love. If you do that, then no matter what (if anything ) comes next, you will still be all set - for the now, and for the potential then.

Live well; be kind; help others; accept love from others; give love and kindness.

You do all that, to the best of your abilities, you won't have to worry about eternity.

I believe you just hit on the main reason some turn to religion, they think they are so important they need to continue on after this life. In some ways being atheist means we need to be more responsible, in that we only go around once, can't make amends later. Can't see our loved ones "when we get up there" or " I know my mom is looking down, and proud". Or whatever BS they tell themselves. We need to get it right...now. I kinda like being a tiny insignificant ignorant bit of carbon in this huge universe. The only way we continue on is how we effect others.

why do you dread it? it will be like the ultimate restful sleep. you will be completely and blissfully unaware of anything. sounds a lot better than knocking about in a cloud with 25,000,000,000 "angels or 25,000,000,000 demons don't you think? its the way we might die that's the bad part but there's nothing we can do about that.

I remember the comedian Buddy Hackett saying he wasn't afraid of death because "I figure I won't know about it."

Growing up as a hardcore religious fanatic, I had the exact same reaction - I was so upset that praying was no longer practiced and all the ego's fears about death and the aftermath troubled me for a few years. I realized that I can never know what's going to happen to my consciousness after my body dies. My bodily fears the most is suffering, pain before I die. I'd want a quick painless death. I have to trust that since we're physically here on earth and we'll physically leave the earth... millions of people before us and after us gone through and will go through the same paths.... since it's working okay... we'll be okay. That's my logical thinking.

You don't know if your existance will end with your passing. Nobody here knows because no one here has died and report back. No need for anxiety. Live your life as you feel proper. And Welcome to our humble home.

I think it takes as long is you want it to take. I know I’m very matter-of-fact about things. I think I have a more existential approach to all of this especially when it comes to how we feel about things. I like Viktor Frankl’s idea about the one thing that no one can take away from us, and that’s the ability to feel any way that we want to feel about any given situation. When I put dogma aside, it gave me space to explore, research, and develop my own belief system. My belief is that we are energy and when we die we are transformed into something else and add our energy to that, whether it’s already existing or something new. A tree, a tire, a sandwich In that sense, we have always been here and we will always be here. Not souls, not spirits, not ghosts, not some non-corporeal form that goes to heaven or hell or somewhere in between. But becoming a part of everything, anything, billions of things in this universe. It is that belief that gave me peace. I don’t know if this helped you, but that’s how I figured it all out.

I couldn't say. I think there are some variables. How observant of a theist were you? How deeply ingrained was this in childhood?
I would suggest that you read or watch Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. Campbell was within a year of dying when he did this project. While this isn't a primer on becoming an atheist, it's a great introduction to learning the difference between metaphoric belief and literal belief.
Also check out the writings of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens (paradoxical given name for Hitchens!).
You might also expect one or two emotionally jarring events in your life that can affirm your disbelief. Or quite possibly being put under anesthesia. I've had this experience in which being unconscious is a chemically induced visit to the void.

Well for me I fear and dread it just like most people. I just don't take my life for granted. Breathing, being here right now is the miracle. I'm more free from the shackles to live a life that I choose for me.

I tend to equate giving up on the idea of an afterlife as an adult with giving up on the idea of Santa Claus as a child, it's a shock at first but you get over it with time. It's better to live life with the reality of ones mortality than to put off living this life fully in hopes of an afterlife based only on fantasy, so live each day to the fullest. Cherish the life you have and know that a life well lived is its own reward.

Only you can decide that for yourself. I do not fear the inevitable. I'm in no hurry for it, but
since it's going to happen whether I like it or not, I don't see any point in fretting about it.
That would be a waste of the time that I do have. However long that may be.

That said, welcome to the asylum. Enjoy your stay.

Remember how mad you were about not existing before you were born? exactly.