Fear of Death
I was having a chat about my atheism with my supposed to be friends.The first friend asked me was I not afraid of being dead.Did anyone else get asked this question?
Tags: Death
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jesse Mathewson on -
To answer the original question, yes - my family are hard core cultist christians and they are constantly trying to "scare" Jeebus back into me. When I refuse letting them know I am not afraid as they are they than don't talk too me for a few months...or until their pastor next tells them to bring in the quota! lol
NO FEAR OF DEATH after all it is simply the end - and honestly I have lived a full and good life - regardless of what happens this pigpen is DONE! So do I fear death, hell no, do I want too die- after 65 I wont resist if thats what you want too hear! (My DNR is clear for sure...and if my family wants to get my $'s - not my brothers and sisters my children and wonderful lady- than they will honor my wishes!)
As for my last wishes, its simple- I have a gallon of gasoline, a burn barrel, a permit, and a flower bed ready too go! After all why use the direct pay death benefits for some expensive and ultimately useless funeral just to remember me? lol I should hope not!
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Permalink Reply by Jesse Mathewson on
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Yes, the one person I absolutely trust at this time (until my daughter is old enough to understand everything) would be the wonderful lady in my life- the only change she requested was that she be allowed to keep the ashes in a mason jar so she can tote me around and cuss at me when she has to deal with the kids alone LOL
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Permalink Reply by M on -
My classmate Andy jokes that he'd like to be blown up in a field so that when he comes raining down in pieces his friends and family can say, "I think I got a piece of Andy on me." Gruesome, but morbidly entertaining!
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Permalink Reply by Brenda Joanne on -
I just say it will be the same as before I was born/fertilized. Non-existence to non-existence.
You just "go away".
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Permalink Reply by Shanika on -
I think about this as well. Will my family mourn for me, worrying that I've gone to hell? I know I mourned for my dad in this way after he died. What a painful experience!!!! I was so sad thinking not only about losing my father, but also because I believed he was going to hell because he was not a Christian.
This is one of the ways religion did me real dirty! I remember feeling so hurt and angry at my dad for not taking heed, for not "giving his life to the Lord". I grieved so heavily about it for months until this "prophetess" told me that God told her that daddy was in heaven; that he'd asked the Lord to forgive him before he died. ( She knew about my grief because I shared it with her daughter, who was a close friend of mine, so I guess she figured that would console me).
I just hope that my family will look over the life I lived and see the good and not dwell on what they consider "bad" (denouncing religion). I also hope they'll respect my wishes and not give me a religious funeral (not that I'd know...lol)
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Permalink Reply by caleb daniel on -
I fear that as well. I don't want a preacher at my funeral, not do I want it held in a Church.
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Permalink Reply by Shanika on
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Interesting! I was just having this discussion today with my sister. I was asking why people are so afraid of death. It is as natural as life, and it is all around us, all the time, everyday. We kill insects. We think nothing of it. Some of us eat meat, and don't dwell on the fact that we're eating the flesh of a dead animal. So why are we so preoccupied with the fear of it? I think religion has alot to do with instilling an even greater fear of death in the heart of mankind.
I guess for me, I'm afraid of dying in pain, or realizing that I'm about to die (like having a gun pointed at me or dying in a plane crash...something where I realize..."Here it comes"...lol). But it's true that once it happens, that's it, you'll know no more, because you'll be no more, except through whatever legacy you leave behind. This is why our focus should be more on life, doing things that count; leaving behind a legacy...the only part of us that will outlive us.
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Permalink Reply by Brenda Joanne on
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Well said Shanika!
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Permalink Reply by M on
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I think my only real "fear" of death is that I won't be ready to go or I will pre-mourn the people I so desperately love and don't want to leave behind. Death itself isn't that scary. It's one of life's last great mysteries: you don't get to know exactly what it's like until you do it yourself. Since my consciousness will cease to be, I assume I won't be upset by being dead as I will have no concept of that or anything else. I personally like the thought of being part of a bigger cycle. I live, I consume resources and love, I die, I fertilize and feed and give back.
We are an egotistial animal. We can't imagine ourselves as not "being." I think that's why we are so obsessed with having an afterlife. We want to be eternal.
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Permalink Reply by caleb daniel on
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My Mother actually addressed my death directly. For context: I chose to come out as an Atheist, coincidentally, a few months before an unexpected and life threatening surgery. It was very scary for all of us. But I wasn’t as scared as I thought I might be. I relate death to sleeping. Do you fear sleeping? No. Do you fear being wrong? Yes. That’s the only thing that would creep into my thoughts when I was alone in the hospital between shots of morphine. Thank science I was reading “The God Delusion” at the time. My “faith” was concrete. Back to what I was saying: My Mother decided to bring in her pastor the day of the surgery for an emergency salvation attempt. I will tell the whole story at another time, but suffice it to say he left with his tail between his legs, I lived and I still don’t believe. But, of course, my Mother thinks the surgery was a miracle in spite of the many, many years of education my Thoracic Surgeon attended.
The only thing I fear relating to death is the way that I die. We all imagine a death where we are in a hospital or hopefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. We tell them how much we love them, they tell us how awesome we are, we keep fishing for more complements...blah blah blah. That's how mine went down. HA! But how accurate is that idea? How do most people die?
http://dying.about.com/od/causes/tp/oddsdying.htm
In relation to what has been said earlier: I fear the idea of losing others to death and not so much my own death. I am being slightly assertive when I say this, but I feel that death may be more difficult for the non-believers. When someone we care for dies we don’t carry the expectation of seeing him or her ever again. I will concede a small bit of jealousy for their ignorant bliss in this one area. But, for what it's worth we actually say goodbye. And in my opinion we deal with death in a healthier way. We aren't holding on. And I think that holding on is what really started religion. We can't conceive of zero. So, we start to create in our minds a reality of that we want. And maybe this idea of what we want was told to someone else who was grieving, to comfort them, and they used it to comfort someone else and so on. And maybe that's where religion was born.
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