Atheists, do you ever worry what will happen to you if you are wrong in your disbelief in God and He really does exist. Do you find the thought of there being no afterlife depressing?
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Atheists: What If You Are Wrong?
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PsychoSarah
Chaotic Neutral
I would be happy to be wrong, I don't worry about that. The thought of no afterlife is extremely depressing, although I will mention that atheists only don't believe in deities, I know atheists who believe in ghosts and the afterlife. Not me personally though.
If god is such a narcissist that me not believing in it is justification for punishing me eternally, I don't think I would have enjoyed having to worship it for all eternity in heaven anyways. Besides, I am a 5th generation atheist, if belief matters and I chose to be a believer I would be eternally separated from the people I care about most.
Also, Pascal's Wager has long since been destroyed. What if you are wrong and you should have been worshipping Vishnu this whole time?
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babylonisfalling
Newbie
Very few atheists die as atheists.
Nearly all of them become Christian and usually make for the most admirable members of the congregation.
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PsychoSarah
Chaotic Neutral
Nope, actually, plenty do. And many Christians become atheists before death. Despair can definitely shift world views, but many people don't change how they view the world just because they are dying.
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How do Atheists conquer the fear of hell? Especially if they have come from a Christian background and been raised to believe in such things?
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Senator Cheese
Master of Cheese
Those who reject the concept of God will ultimately also reject the concept of Hell.
In other words, it makes little sense to believe in Hell but not believe in God. As such, Atheists probably have no fear of hell (because they do not believe it exists).
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PsychoSarah
Chaotic Neutral
Well, I don't think hell exists so... why would I fear it? And i don't know any atheist who believes in hell, seriously, I don't even know an atheist who thinks beliefs make a difference in the afterlife.
This would be like asking you how you get over your fear of Hel's domain (yes, the name of the Norse god is rather unfortunate), which awaits those who died without doing anything impressive or important (for the Vikings, a peaceful death in old age was the worst kind of death, and the afterlife was more reflective of what one was doing while they died and right before than what they had done their whole lives).
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PsychoSarah
Chaotic Neutral
I don't reject god any more than you would reject a child's imaginary friend.
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I have a hard time imagining a God so petty as to forgive the most terrible murderers and to condemn me for simple disbelief.
Does that make a lot of sense to you?
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JGL53
Senior Veteran
That's Pascal's Wager. Pascal was a devout catholic. The only god that counted to him was the catholic christian god. Protestants, Muslims, Hindus, atheists were all headed to hell in his opinion.
So for that reason, not to mention much more obvious reasons, Pascal's Wager is nothing more than special pleading and an utter logical fallacy.
I qualify as an atheist. My attitude is that any form of personal "afterlife" is an absurdity - a baseless proposition. Thus, case closed - pretty much.
Nevertheless, hypothetically-speaking, ignoring science, on the off chance there is an afterlife, so what? I and you and all other humans will find that out when we die. In the meantime we have no knowledge of such. In fact, all scientific evidence to date points to the absurdity of such an idea.
If there is, and the quality of this afterlife depends on our actions in this life, then follow the Golden Rule. That should suffice. There's no reason to think otherwise. IOW, why put a monkey on your back when you don't have to do so? (The monkey I am referring to is sectarian so-called "revealed" religion.)
Am I making sense here or is there something you still don't understand?
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No.
No.
I stopped believing in Hell before I became an atheist, so that wasn't really an issue.
There is no good reason to think that Hell exists. Not a single one. You conquer your fear by realizing that.
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JGL53
Senior Veteran
Me too, er, I also.
That must be pretty common.
I also became a deist before I was an atheist. And I passed through a short period of time about age 15 or 16 where my position was "I don't know what the heck I believe." I suppose we could term that agnosticism for want of a better label.
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Even if there were a God and an afterlife I would see no reason to assume belief/lack of belief would get me in the good place or send me to the bad place. Just because some religions have created a God image that is suspiciously similar to vain earthly dictators who punish thought crimes doesn't mean it's logical to assume "the real God" , if such a thing existed, would actually meet that description. I would have to believe an advanced infinite intelligence would be beyond such petty things as punishing people eternally for not being convinced of his existence.
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Paradoxum
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I have considered it, but I wouldn't say I worry about it. If God is good, then I don't fear him. I don't think a certain belief would be required to be saved by a reasonable God.
I don't tend to find the idea of death being the end as that depressing. Death is basically an eternal sleep, and I like sleep. I do fear dying before I'm ready though (which assumes it's possible to be ready).
I also think it's sad not being able to know the end of the story. I mean, what will happen to the human race.
I was raised to believe in hell, but now I don't believe in it, so I don't fear it. Even as I neared the end of my faith, my theology on the afterlife was becoming more inclusive, and I rejected the idea of hell as evil, and not something a loving God would create.
I don't tend to find the idea of death being the end as that depressing. Death is basically an eternal sleep, and I like sleep. I do fear dying before I'm ready though (which assumes it's possible to be ready).
I also think it's sad not being able to know the end of the story. I mean, what will happen to the human race.
I was raised to believe in hell, but now I don't believe in it, so I don't fear it. Even as I neared the end of my faith, my theology on the afterlife was becoming more inclusive, and I rejected the idea of hell as evil, and not something a loving God would create.
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There are two things I'm about as certain of as one can be on:
Either
1. A personal God does not exist
or
2. If he/she does exist he isn't particularly concerned whether I believe in his existence or not. Why? Because God could simply read my mind to find out the things I would find convincing and then convince me if it were really that important to him.
Given this if one did happen to exist I would have no reason to assume he punished people simply because they aren't convinced of his existence.
Either
1. A personal God does not exist
or
2. If he/she does exist he isn't particularly concerned whether I believe in his existence or not. Why? Because God could simply read my mind to find out the things I would find convincing and then convince me if it were really that important to him.
Given this if one did happen to exist I would have no reason to assume he punished people simply because they aren't convinced of his existence.
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No. Do you ever worry what will happen to you if you are wrong - believing in the false god?
No.
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