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Fear Of Death..

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24567…14

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    #32
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,970 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Author Iain Banks has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he's an atheist of long standing. Have a look at his statement on his illness, for an example of how an atheist can face death.
    The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.

    As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry - but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we'll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #33
    Gambler
    Registered Users Posts: 1,825 ✭✭✭Gambler


    I kind of see death as a finishing line - I've got until then to do as much "right" as I can and then my time is up.

    For me my "afterlife" is the consequences of my life here. What effect does my being here have on the world after I'm gone. Will I have raised decent kids who help make things better, have I left the lives of the people I've known better for knowing me or not (That's a tough one and I've not always gotten it right), that kind of thing.

    Like everyone else I do think about the things I'm going to miss once I'm gone but I find the focus on what I can do when I'm alive keeps that in check.


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    #34
    MarkyMark22
    Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭MarkyMark22


    bnt wrote: »
    Author Iain Banks has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he's an atheist of long standing. Have a look at his statement on his illness, for an example of how an atheist can face death.

    Scratch that...


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    #35
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,970 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    MarkyMark22 wrote: »
    Scratch that...
    Scratch what?

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #36
    MarkyMark22
    Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭MarkyMark22


    bnt wrote: »
    Scratch what?

    I posted some wrong information about Iain Banks.


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    #37
    GCU Flexible Demeanour
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,257 ✭✭✭GCU Flexible Demeanour


    MarkyMark22 wrote: »
    As an atheist, is it normal to have a fear of death?

    I'm quite young but find I have a strong fear of being dead. Not dying.

    The thought of not being alive and just nothingness.

    The thought of life carrying on without me.

    Does anyone else have this fear?

    How can an atheist deal with or accept mortality?
    It's perfectly normal and, in my experience, it wears off over time. Buddha put a name on it when he said "all the unhappiness in the world is caused by the belief that impermanent things are permanent". Once you discover what you can give to other people, and feel you are giving them that as far as you are capable, I expect your fear will diminish.


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    #38
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,970 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Oh well. He's well-known as an atheist, in case that was what that was about. Quote from Celebrity Atheists:
    Banks calls himself an 'evangelical atheist'. He talks of wanting 'to proselytise about the badness of religion, and to say that faith is wrong, belief without reason and question is just evil'.
    Doesn't mince his words, then. I sincerely doubt he's going turn to religion in his last year, any more than Christopher Hitchens did - but I also imagine he has more important things on his mind than atheism.

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #39
    MarkyMark22
    Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭MarkyMark22


    GCU Flexible Demeanour wrote: »
    It's perfectly normal and, in my experience, it wears off over time. Buddha put a name on it when he said "all the unhappiness in the world is caused by the belief that impermanent things are permanent". Once you discover what you can give to other people, and feel you are giving them that as far as you are capable, I expect your fear will diminish.

    One hopes so.

    With my current mentality, I somehow doubt it.

    Seeing a psychologist is something I've considered to help with it, it's not that I think about death 24/7. I probably just think about it more than I should.

    I'm a 22 year old, relatively healthy male. The thought of death shouldn't really be on my mind so much, but my unshakeable atheism leads it to be.

    I think it's brought about through a love of life, science, nature and wildlife.

    Its also lead me to become a vegetarian. The thought of an animal losing its life for my pleasure brings a sense of guilt to me.


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    #40
    Cork Boy
    Registered Users Posts: 626 ✭✭✭Cork Boy


    Ah we all have weird thoughts at 22, it'll pass and you'll become a much more cynical bastard and the thought of leaving the world won't be overly upsetting (says the 29 year old!!!).

    For those religious lurkers out there, fear not eternal damnation... as Jim Jeffries said:

    "Now as far as I know the devil hasn't written any book, we don't get his side of the story...maybe god is talking all this poopoo about him and he's just being the bigger man..."


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    #41
    Undergod
    Registered Users Posts: 2,858 ✭✭✭Undergod


    Death is flat-out terrifying.


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    #42
    Brian Shanahan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,232 ✭✭✭Brian Shanahan


    MarkyMark22 wrote: »
    As an atheist, is it normal to have a fear of death?

    I'm quite young but find I have a strong fear of being dead. Not dying.

    The thought of not being alive and just nothingness.

    The thought of life carrying on without me.

    Does anyone else have this fear?

    How can an atheist deal with or accept mortality?

    Fear of death and what doesn't come after is one of the leading causes of religion IMO. If you look at many religions a big part of their mythology centres around the good afterlife true believers will get and the eternal damnation nonbelievers will receive.

    Myself I don't really think about death, it's something that will happen so why worry? I'm actually kind of looking forward to finding out if I'm wrong on the whole god angle, if I'm right I'll never know;)


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    #43
    Kidchameleon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Kidchameleon


    MarkyMark22 wrote: »
    The thought of not being alive and just nothingness.

    Why do you believe there is nothingness?


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    #44
    lukesmom
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    MarkyMark22 wrote: »
    I don't fear the actual dying part. It's the thought of being dead.

    I know I'll just go back to the way I was prior to birth. But after experiencing life, the thought of that isn't soothing.

    You said you 'know' you'll go back to the way you were prior to birth. How do you know that?


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    #45
    Lingua Franca
    Registered Users Posts: 2,800 ✭✭✭Lingua Franca


    Kidchameleon wrote: »
    Why do you believe there is nothingness?

    Because we're in the atheism and agnosticism forum.


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    #46
    Brian Shanahan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,232 ✭✭✭Brian Shanahan


    Kidchameleon wrote: »
    Why do you believe there is nothingness?

    Because that is what the evidence suggests, maybe?


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    #47
    Sarky
    Closed Accounts Posts: 31,967 ✭✭✭✭Sarky


    Going by what it was like before I was born, it seems logical to assume that being dead will be much the same.


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    #48
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Brian Shanahan wrote: »
    Myself I don't really think about death, it's something that will happen so why worry? I'm actually kind of looking forward to finding out if I'm wrong on the whole god angle, if I'm right I'll never know;)

    And if you're wrong, how'll you know it's not just that some insidious folk trapped you inside a virtual reality machine and feed the fake post death experiences to you? :D


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    #49
    Brian Shanahan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,232 ✭✭✭Brian Shanahan


    Jernal wrote: »
    And if you're wrong, how'll you know it's not just that some insidious folk trapped you inside a virtual reality machine and feed the fake post death experiences to you? :D

    I always take the red pill.:pac:


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    #50
    lukesmom
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    Brian Shanahan wrote: »
    Because that is what the evidence suggests, maybe?


    What is your evidence please?


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    #51
    MickFleetwood
    Registered Users Posts: 1,148 ✭✭✭MickFleetwood


    You'll never even know about it, though. All you will experience is life.


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    #52
    Artful_Badger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,339 ✭✭✭Artful_Badger


    lukesmom wrote: »
    What is your evidence please?

    Well there is the small matter of the fact that a brain devoid of oxygen will cease to function. Given the mind is a product of brain activity what else can there be but nothingness in relation to the mind if the brain no longer functions ?


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    #53
    Maire2009
    Registered Users Posts: 1,379 ✭✭✭Maire2009


    I don't fear death at all but I do fear having a prolonged dying process. I just hope I die without knowing it.

    I actually have a greater fear in the thought of there being an afterlife - I don't believe in one but the remote chance of there being one scares me. Why? Because an afterlife pretty much equates to living forever. Why would you want to live forever? What would you do?


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    #54
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,134 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    This sums up my attitude to death:
    I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.

    Woody Allen

    As for evidence of an afterlife, there's absolutely none.


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    #55
    lukesmom
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    Artful_Badger wrote: »
    Well there is the small matter of the fact that a brain devoid of oxygen will cease to function. Given the mind is a product of brain activity what else can there be but nothingness in relation to the mind if the brain no longer functions ?


    But the mind and the brain are two separate entities.


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    #56
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,134 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    lukesmom wrote: »
    But the mind and the brain are two separate entities.

    Proof?


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    #57
    MickFleetwood
    Registered Users Posts: 1,148 ✭✭✭MickFleetwood


    lukesmom wrote: »
    But the mind and the brain are two separate entities.

    Oh boy.


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    #58
    ShooterSF
    Registered Users Posts: 8,824 ✭✭✭ShooterSF


    lukesmom wrote: »
    But the mind and the brain are two separate entities.

    For men maybe. But death puts an end to erections too.


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    #59
    Tigger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,707 ✭✭✭✭Tigger


    Without music, life would be a mistake.
    Friedrich Nietzsche




    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLQzfdCs_HU


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    #60
    lukesmom
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    MickFleetwood wrote: »
    Oh boy.



    That all you got?


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    #61
    Kidchameleon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Kidchameleon


    Lingua Franca wrote: »
    Because we're in the atheism and agnosticism forum.

    What has atheism / agnosticism got to do with the existence or non existence of an afterlife?


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