BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Atheist Do You Fear Death?

>Sort of makes sense that most of the atheist/agnostics people I know are quite well organized and pragmatic people.


Well... not me. I'm organizationally challenged. So I have to live a LOOOOONG time to accomplish all I want to do!

I think for me it reminds me that I don't have everything organized well enough. If I died right now it'd be a challenge for someone to pick up all the things I left "half done" and get them finished. I try hard to document what I'm doing but it's not documented nearly well enough. So I should take time to get everything organized so that if I was hit by a bus, someone else could come along and keep the websites and charity work going smoothly. I will put that on my to-do list.

LOL, that's a very good plan. I like it.

Hi Gaye! A very old Wiccan lady once told me" Hold onto everything with light fingers because it can all go away very quickly." When I started doing that in my conscious mind a great load was gradually lifted and I quit taking this life so seriously. I thought about my job, My other half, my kids, college, environment, terrorism, what next? My left brain went AWOL and my right brain said" Do you like carrying all of this around with you?". I soon said "hell no"! I guess I started going with the flow of life and then I learned how to relax.

I'm terrified of death. Too many things I need to be here for, one of my children is autistic so it is a terror to think she'd be left with only her father. Not that he is a bad father, but because of the strain it would put on him, plus her trying to understand where mommy went.

Hi Julie! In your picture you look to be relatively young. You probably will be around for many many more years. I believe that as we get older we look as much backward as we do forward. The love that we know and share builds at least a tolerable and for some a very comfortable cushion that allows us to exit this experience without much fear. If we do what we really love and care for ourselves and those we are around to the best that we can it will be O.K.

Hi ancientflaxman,

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. What a totally cool wiccan lady. You've just reminded me of the recurring river theme in Herman Hesse's, Siddhartha. 'OM'

People can teach all the religious doctrine they want, but it doesn't automatically mean that it will lead one to find one's own true inner "self". It certainly didn't work for me.

And who knows? Maybe the whole idea of "self" is a just another construct. Existence preceeding essence explains to me why knowledge can be taught, but true wisdom only comes from experience.

So, in reminding me of Siddhartha, going with the flow, and the inevitability of certain changes - I thank you.

It's so much more peaceful than becoming exhausted tying to swim upstream.

Thank you, ancientflaxman. Both for the calming words and the compliment. I wished I felt young!

Not as obsessed over death as I was once. Still terrfied of it, but it isn't in my mind every moment. Last year it was a near thing, so the brush sort of killed the obsession.

I just thought of this Julie: My granddad told me that when we loose the fear of living, in dying we will be fearless. I still am trying to figure the totality of that one . Don't be afraid, all is well.