New Video: Are Atheists Afraid of Death?

[rug]

Posted on April 10, 2015
by Godless Mom

I got asked this question the other day, so here’s my best answer. What is your take? Do you think there is a specifically “atheist” way of looking at death? Are you afraid of death or dying? Let me know in the comments.

http://godlessmom.com/new-video-are-atheists-afraid-of-death/

[Tommy2Tone]

1. Everyone is afraid of death..

Some just lie about it.

[ladjf]

2. My guess is that atheists are no more afraid of dying

than are religious people. nt

[cbayer]

3. I agree with her that the only thing atheists have in common is the lack of

belief in a god.

OTOH, I think the only thing that theists have in common is a belief in god.

Anyone who generalizes further is making a mistake.

So then she just goes on about how religious people feel about death and pats herself on the back for her superior attitude.

Guess what? Just like for atheism, there is no doctrine in theism that tells people how to fell about death. YOu have to ask each one of them, just like you have to ask atheists.

[PassingFair]

4. Any particular atheist might be afraid of death. But NOT what "lays beyond".

Personally, I don't fear death, I fear pain.

It makes me sad to contemplate my death or the death
of a loved one, but I think sadness is different than "fear".

I don't worry about "hell" or look forward to "heaven".

[clydefrand]

5. I don't think I was ever actually afraid of death,

and I consider myself a atheist, but I'm 80, and the way this country/this world is going, I'm
actually looking for to dying - but I'm certainly not going to do myself in. I might live another
10 - 20 years - I don't know and don't really care. I've had a fairly good life, and still in fairly good health.

[rug]

11. My goodness, eighty and still fighting.

My father-in-law was sick for a while and one day he just said. "I'm ready." He was an atheist as well.

[tazkcmo]

6. Atheist here

No. Death is like pre-birth. What were you doing before you were born?

[stone space]

13. During the millenia before I was born, I didn't prove a single theorem.

Didn't like it then, and I don't expect to like it any better after I'm dead, either.

In fact, the whole notion just pisses me off to even think about it!



That's my atheist take on the subject!

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Simple question and...

she gave the simple answer in 10-20 seconds or so.

Then aimless yakking for 4 minutes, 2 of which I made it through.

[cbayer]

8. Completely agree. She could have stopped after the first 4 sentences.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Alas, but then she wouldn't have a YouTube video.

[TBA]

10. The way I see it is

Why should I fear a state (being dead) where fear does not exist?

I'm sure the end of my life will be very sad if I have time to think abut it. However, I hope I can remain grateful for having lived.

[rug]

12. The famous quote attributed to Epicurus:

“Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.”

[PassingFair]

14. He's a goldmine of good stuff.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Epicurus

[rug]

15. Oh yeah, if I was on an island I'd take him and Marcus Aurelius.

[LeftishBrit]

16. Most people are afraid of death.

Though as several people here have pointed out, we were all 'dead' for many millennia until we were born.

Was it Woody Allen who said, 'I'm not afraid of dying; I just don't want to be there when it happens'?

[cbayer]

17. Woody Allen - now there's someone with serious death anxiety,

as well as gross ambivalence about religion.

Love him.

[rug]

18. Well, to coin a phrase, that's more Being and Nothingness than life and death.

[DerekG]

19. You'd have to be a hard-core stoic not to fear death

The notion of the ol' "lights-out"/fade-to-black is unsettling, to say the least. Everything we experienced, everything we were...gone.

Of course, there are worse conceits. Imagine if reincarnation turned out to be true? What if I was reborn in a warzone, or to a couple of crack addicts or tweakers? Hell, I'd take the fade-to-black anyday.