emotional

The thought of having my consciousness switched off without ever awakening. The thought of the whole universe coming to an end. Subjectively speaking, the universe exists only while I am alive. When I die, if death is the end of all, the universe will be no more. I try to imagine total nothingness, total unconsciousness forever, and I just reel with fear when I do it.

Shadowy Man

But you can't know unconsciousness forever, so you won't actually know death.

Whatever being dead is, you won't ever get to experience it.

How did you ever handle the billions of years before you were born?

emotional

That's exactly what I'm afraid of: not knowing, not experiencing anything.

I'm afraid when I think of that too.

Shadowy Man

But you can't experience that.

emotional

But I can be afraid of it now.



Look, thanks for your help, but I don't think you'll succeed where professionals have failed. Professionals haven't been able to cure me of this fear, so I'll have to do it myself, my own way.

SimplyAtheistic

Irrationalism is not a good cure for your fear emotional. I understand where you are coming from, but your best option would be to face your situation in all honesty and accept the facts.
Jake

openeyes

I consider myself a happy atheist. But my parents seem to be pretty happy theists. My point is, I'm not sure "happiness" has a connection to one's level a religiosity or if genetic influences of other sorts are more important.

I know for me, I felt an "enlightening" when I considered a world without a god. I can live a better life not trying to account for the non-existent and the dogmas and exhortations that flow from a belief in such. It's still a very moral life, but my decisions are based on my own judgment influenced by my knowledge and experience, not something written thousands of years ago.

Death doesn't scare me in that I won't know about it when it happens to me, but since my kids are not fully grown yet, I fear for them sometimes because I know they would be greatly emotionally affected if something happened to me.

emotional

So far it's the only one that's worked.

I did and it didn't work.

Rational BAC

Emotional-----

I do not understand any kind of fear of death. From an athiest viewpoint--death is just an endless sleep. We all sleep--every night. Nothing to be afraid of. Death is just sleep without the nightmares or any dreams at all.

From a theist viewpoint, death is just a reawakening to the glory of the universe---the understanding of which is incomprehensible to those living.

Can't lose either way. Stop being scared of nothing to be scared of. Just enjoy if you are a theist. And be unconscient if you are an atheist.

Deacon Doubtmonger

Well, a lot depends on who's experiencing theism in what way -- compare and contrast the stress level of the arrogant male televangelist in his tax-exempt mansion with that of the poor pregnant girl whose boyfriend left her, who he's thundering at about the sinfulness of abortion.

This is exactly how being a theist was for me. The first time I ever spoke to my freshman ethics professor about my misgivings about religion, I was literally trembling in fear of being struck down by god on the spot, so great was my programming. However, that stuff had to be said, and saying it became much less frightening for me over time.

I can't presume to speak for others, but in my case, atheism started out terrifying (yes, dogma can be a source of [blind, unthinking] comfort -- at least until you cross one of the dogma-peddlers), but gradually helped me become happier and more at peace. I still struggle with serious depression, but at least I'm not making it worse by voluntarily imposing the stress you speak of on myself anymore. Like any skill, reaping the happiness that comes from renouncing theism-induced fear becomes easier and more rewarding with practice.

Deacon Doubtmonger