How did you cope with this?

[Achilles2]

The majority of NG is filled with Atheists. Of these Atheists, a significant minority are actually Atheists and not just "I-HATE-GOING-TO-CHURCH-SO-I'M-ATHEIST" people. So this is a good place to ask this question.

How did you, personally, cope with your belief that after life there is nothing? Are you still afraid of dying and never existing every again, and if not, how did you overcome this fear?

I'm not an Atheist, just to clear the record (nor am I a Theist). I'm just asking for some feedback here.

[STEM]

I stop thinking about what will happen to me 60 years from now, and concentrate on what's happening today.

[Obvious-M]

My RS teacher doesn't understand athiests, how they can totally acknowledge nothing, weird.

[iMini]

Not an atheist here.

Can't say I can choose 1 inparticular religion when their are so many to choose from all of which have the same amount of evidence that they exist...

[SymbolCymbal]

well im an athiest because simply we are part of nature and the next life is fertilizer.
im not scared of death really but id rather live.
plus im too young to care. 26 isnt that old right? lol
screw death it happens to everyone so how scary can it really be.
i just wanna go out doing something worth while.
like geting eaten by a lion or saving someones life

[AcidSoldier]

At 9/16/08 03:21 PM, BlurrythyRuler wrote: Most of these "atheists" are just pretending to seem cool. People think that if you don't believe in God and you go on NG, you are auto cool.

The word atheist means someone who doesn't believe in a god or religion. Nothing to do with coolness. I'm an atheist.

[zoolrule]

I just face up with the truth, there's nothing i can do.

I wont made up some fairytale just to get over it.

[Catoblepas]

Just stopped caring. Obviously I wouldn't want to die now, but after 60 more years I think I'm quite ready to die and stop existing. Right now I'm too busy thinking about living rather than dying.

[Gatling]

I hope I won't die tomorrow, because then it'll be over for good.

[Achilles2]

At 9/16/08 03:21 PM, Obvious-M wrote: My RS teacher doesn't understand athiests, how they can totally acknowledge nothing, weird.

Please don't turn this into a Theist vs. Atheist debate. I just want to hear the Atheist side of things.

[Viridis]

At 9/16/08 03:20 PM, STEM wrote: I stop thinking about what will happen to me 60 years from now, and concentrate on what's happening today.

Same for me, every now again i try to wrap my head around not being a concious entity, but it screws my mind something frightful so i leave it alone, when it comes it comes, no need to worry about it now. :)

[ElectricDiarrhea]

Yo, I'm Atheist, and right now I don't fear death. But that's just because I'm not about to die. If a wild tiger was chasing me down, I'd be crapping my pants. I guess I just don't think about it. And if I do all I think of is: ceasing to exist. The world goes on fine without me, and sooner or later all the people who knew me die too. We all rot in the ground - The End. Life is too short to think about death all day.

Can someone answer me this? In heaven, what do you do? I know about the eternal happiness and all that, but do you just chill with God drinking milkshakes, or what?

[Bramly-apple]

I was never taught anything about God when I was young and when I asked my parents what happened when you died they just told me that no one knew and I just decided to not worry about it until happened.

[Achilles2]

At 9/16/08 03:27 PM, ElectricDiarrhea wrote: Can someone answer me this? In heaven, what do you do? I know about the eternal happiness and all that, but do you just chill with God drinking milkshakes, or what?

Back when I was a Christian, they taught us that in Heaven, it's basically like life on Earth, except minus what's considered sinful. Also, there's something like a church service every day. In Islam, Heaven is like life on Earth with added pleasures.

[STEM]

At 9/16/08 03:28 PM, Bramly-apple wrote: I was never taught anything about God when I was young and when I asked my parents what happened when you died they just told me that no one knew and I just decided to not worry about it until happened.

That's definitely the way to go. Being told what to believe as a youngster is such a crime :X

[Zombified]

I try not to think about anymore. I guess I'll just figure it out when it happens.

[Odio]

Hehe, I'd like to put something intelligent and worthwhile into this Thread, but I'm too Pagan for my own good!

[joabos]

i just keep my mind on today and simply don't care.

[MrVideogame]

I'm not an atheist. Meaning I don't believe that a god or a being higher than us does not exist. I also don't believe in any major religion.

I can only hope there is something after this life because if there isn't time spent here seems pretty much worthless.

[captainchaos03]

It doesn't scare me because I won't be able to realize that I'm dead or in nothingness. Actually when I did believe in God, as a little kid, I was always afraid that I might not be accepted to this heaven place and be sent to hell. So actually a little bit it's a relief.

[iateamexican]

Its completely irresponsible, but I hate thinking about the future.
Shit that will worry me later in life shouldn't worry me now.

[All-American-Badass]

i just ignore them

[Phobotech]

I believe that the human mind is powerful enough that it's everything you could ever imagine.

...Plus, we're dead...what's it matter to us? XD

[Ryuzaki1]

Sure, I'd like to live and experience things but I'm not exactly scared of death. I'd happily die at 65 because when you're older than that there isnt much you can do with your life.

I've never really believed in the afterlife because it doesn't make sense to me, so I'm not scared about not being re-born.

[SCUD14]

I don't care. I came to live life, not fear death.

I AM MAN!

[MrVideogame]

At 9/16/08 04:11 PM, SCUD14 wrote: I don't care. I came to live life, not fear death.

I AM MAN!

no gods or kings.

Only man.

[patm1313]

I realized that I only have one life, so I better live the hell out of it.

[Craigie]

Why bother worrying now?
The more you think about it the worse it gets.
Also i don't follow any religion and there beliefs. I live my own life and i'll believe what i want to believe.

[Thracian]

At 9/16/08 03:19 PM, Achilles2 wrote: How did you, personally, cope with your belief that after life there is nothing?

Also how to cope with the thought that you're just a mass of decaying matter, your feelings, thoughts, and actions are just resulted from chemical reactions in your brain. How to cope that not only after life there is nothing but on the long term you don't leave anything behind, after continued expansion the universe would become too cold to sustain life. I'm not an atheist BTW.

[BranflakesofDoom]

At 9/16/08 03:19 PM, Achilles2 wrote: How did you, personally, cope with your belief that after life there is nothing? Are you still afraid of dying and never existing every again, and if not, how did you overcome this fear?

Well, I manage to cope with the idea that nothing happens when we die by realizing that I'll be dead. I won't see anything, I won't hear anything, I won't feel anything. Now, I'm still afraid to die, of course, but realizing this helped calm me down a bit about the whole matter.

And if you're wondering why I became an atheist, it's because it makes sense to me. I became an atheist after years of doubting and questioning what people (mostly my family and friends) told me. All that really matters is that I found something that I can believe in because it makes sense to me.