Without religion would humans still fear death?

aidan24326

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

My point is that an acceptance of reality will lead you to only accept provable evidence. I don't believe we can say there is anything known or unknown about existence after death because we have no evidence to suggest such a thing even exists

I agree. I find it odd that people even speak of 'the unknown' with reference to death, or moreso the time after we're dead. What exactly don't we know? We know that we die and we're gone and that's that. To think anything else is just kidding ourselves.

Depeche_Mode wrote: »

I certainly am not looking forward to death, but alot of the unneccesary baggage of religious fear has been discarded since I stopped believing.

I also think that being atheist/non-believer makes death easier to accept in some ways, as there's nothing much to be feared from a state of non-existence. I don't like the idea of not being alive, but cannot fear the state of being dead itself as I'm pretty sure it will be nothing, literally.

HoneyButterfly

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

If it is innate then why does it turn itself off in cases of individuals diagnosed with terminal illnesses? All of us are dying so why don't we also have this same acceptance now?

Because they've overcome it and come to terms with it. They know they will die soon so learn to appreciate the small things instead of dwelling on their impending death.
I'm sure that when they first learned or had worried that they had a life threatening illness that they would indeed have been very fearful of what the future held for them. Would they have a painful death? Would they retain their dignity in their last days, how would their loved ones cope, etc.
I fear death in the sense that I fear the process of it.(As mentioned previously by someone in this thread, it might well be painful and scary...car crash, freak accident...the list goes on) And whether I'm prepared for it. ie. what am I leaving behind? Have I done everything I wanted to do, I'd worry about loved ones, that kind of thing. BUT, I do not fear death itself, in that, whatever is after death, even if its nothing, if this is all there is, or if there's another life, or a heaven, or whatever...I don't think about, or fear that. So I can't see how religion wuld have installed any fear of death?? When any fear I associate with dying is not related to religion at all.

Flamed Diving

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

I have to admit that when I stopped believeing in God and accepted the facts I went through a long period of depression and on reflection it matched closely the stages of the Kübler-Ross model. But I came out the other side with a calm acceptance of my mortality. I can firmly say that I have no fear of death.

I went through exactly the same phases, I'm actually quite happy with my position now. I don't worry about whats coming next anymore and I just get on with it. Its been a very liberating experience, I must say.

axer

I think it is a case of both fear of the unknown and fear of the possible pain of death.

Anyone that is a true religious head would not or should not have a fear of death whatsoever - but yet many people do.

I don't think I fear death in fact I would fear other peoples death more than my own. I do not really fear that there is nothing on the "otherside" since if there is nothing (which is most likely imo) I won't even notice.

Having said all that people think they know how they feel until they are actually in that situation - things most likely change then.

estebancambias

I think it would be great if an asteroid hit and everyone died at once. Nobody would feel sad.

Dades

estebancambias wrote: »

I think it would be great if an asteroid hit and everyone died at once. Nobody would feel sad.

Life could do with a "reboot" anyway.

ChocolateSauce

I'm really not sure. I've heard of people so religious that ehy "couldn't wait" to die and get into heaven. It seemed to me to be a sorrowful waste of life.

As for me, I honestly don't fear death; I view it with indifference. I fear dying-having seen my grandmother die very painfully for 4 years the thought of it makes me ill-but I'm kind of looking forward to death with my eyes open.

Of course it's the last thing on my to-do list, but I'll get around to it eventually. Like most of my to-do list, I'll put it off as long as possible.

aidan24326

theozster wrote: »

I'm really not sure. I've heard of people so religious that they "couldn't wait" to die and get into heaven. It seemed to me to be a sorrowful waste of life.

Indeed it is, but don't you think it's a bit odd that more religious people aren't at least a bit excited about their death? After all, if they've lived a good life and followed the rules of their religion then heaven awaits. Eternal bliss. Not many religious people would actually have that sort of conviction in their chosen faith, which suggests (to me at least) that the vast majority have underlying doubts to some extent, even if most wouldn't admit it.

Being someone who doesn't believe in an afterlife (personally I find the word itself a bit of an oxymoron) makes it easier I think. Nothing to fear from non-existence, even though it saddens me a bit that death is so unavoidable and so final and that the world I inhabit inside my head will no longer be.

Dades

aidan24326 wrote: »

Not many religious people would actually have that sort of conviction in their chosen faith, which suggests (to me at least) that the vast majority have underlying doubts to some extent, even if most wouldn't admit it.

Indeed! That point brings to mind the adage "faith is believing something you know isn't true".

ChocolateSauce

Indeed indeed!

Well at least I won't be the only one dying.

I hate being alone

anti-venom

AARRRGH wrote: »

I think our instincts make us fear death. For example, animals are terrified of death yet they don't believe in Jesus.

I think religion helps people have morals as a lot of people don't naturally have a sense of morality. (I read that somewhere.)

I wouldn't agree with your second point. Morality is only a word which we use for a variety of naturally occuring altruistic traits. They have been honed and refined by our intellects but they are, nonetheless, natural and evolutionary. We all have them to varying degrees; generosity, protecting our young, empathy with the suffering of others etc, etc. These are survival tools which nature has endowed us and many other species with. Morality is our instincts couched in more consciously refined language.

Your right that we fear death naturally. You don't have to be AWARE of death to fear it.

failsafe

The way I read the thread title was "without belief in an afterlife, would humans still fear the end of this life"? I thought the answer was a somewhat obvious yes?

Besides the whole afterlife concept, there were more subtle things that belief gave me which subdued my fear of immediate death. For me, losing my religion took away a certain sense of destiny I had. I felt confident that I had some purpose in life, and that conviction that I would accomplish my goals in life/"be someone" kind of removed my fear of dying young. I never thought that "God had a plan for me" per se, but I did have a feeling/inner conviction that I had a purpose. Obviously, once I thought deeper about those things along the road to atheism, having a destiny went out the window, which allowed a fear/worry of death to rise in my mind, if only for the simple fact that the concept of a defined future and thinking about dying before that it was fulfulled couldn't previously both co-exist in my mind.

Even though I've used religious terminoligy to explain myself (destiny, fulfilled etc.), it was more of a sense that I had, rather than a strong belief. It was a world view, not necessarily religous, but based on a religious mindset. And once I reasoned away all that superstition and fluff, i lost that sense of purpose that acted as a great barrier to all that thinking about death!

Goduznt Xzst

failsafe wrote: »

And once I reasoned away all that superstition and fluff, i lost that sense of purpose that acted as a great barrier to all that thinking about death!

I think maybe an acceptance of death is also helped with a sense of perspective. If some kid breaks my window with a football my first thought is that at least I'm not living somewhere where that could of been a bullet. In my mind things can always get worse. When I think of the actual series of events that needed to take place for me to come into existence at all I'm appreciative of being able to breath and think, even if it is only for a mere 80 something years.

Death means nothing to me because I didn't care about living before I was alive so why should I care about it after I'm gone. Plus there is nothing I can do to stop it so it is a pointless worry that I prefer to live without.

failsafe

I definitely agree, that's something I forgot to mention. Realising that there is no plan for your life helps you stop asking "why me?" when something bad happens, and put's these things into perspective against the vast amount of worse things that could have happened!