For atheists,how does it feel having no God at all?

Question

i know probably there are some moments in your life that you think of the moment you're gonna die..aren't you hoping to go to a place like heaven or be reincarnated?just wondering...

Answer 1

It feels... I don't know, normal?  

And no, I don't expect any sort of afterlife, that's why I fear death.

Answer 2

It is not an issue. I have no problem with existential dread, that there is nothing at the end. I don't understand the issue others have at all.

Answer 3

that's a religious and psychological question, not a philosophical one.

Answer 4

If you tell people that you believe in Santa Claus, you'll be told to get out of your childhood. If you tell people that you believe in a man in a cloud who never shows up, that's considered fine. Mankind is just beginning to emerge from its infancy.

Answer 5

Well, I'm 75 years old and so my life expectancy is not great. And it doesn't bother me a bit. Here's what the Roman philosopher Epicurus had to say on the subject:

Faith in immortality was born of the greed of unsatisfied people who make unwise use of the time that nature has allotted us. But the wise person finds a life span sufficient to complete the full circle of attainable pleasures, and when the time of death comes, leaves the table satisfied, freeing a place for other guests. For the wise person, one human life is sufficient, and a stupid person will not know what to do with eternity.

Answer 6

It feels like I have no faith.  And for me,  I find it sad sometimes but I am content knowing that after a human body or any body that dies,  it becomes recycled in the ground.  Excuse the cliche: It's the circle of life.

Answer 7

not believing that there is an afterlife helps me to live each day to the fullest. I dont believe that i have a second chance to live forever in some land in the sky or have a second chance at life, therefore i try to become an authentic individual, completely myself, and i live with no regrets. I accept that there is alot I cannot change, and i accept that. I used to believe in heaven. This made me take my life for granted as i felt as if i had a second chance. I wasnt really living. People need to realize this is the only life they have to live and they need to live it to the fullest, change what they can and become the best person they can during their time here.

Of course I'm afraid of death at times, but so is everyone. When I die i believe that I will become part of the earth, as is the natural cycle of this balanced ecosystem we are all a part of. To want to live forever seems selfish to me... to die and help the earth to flourish seems much more admirable selfless and believable.

Answer 8

well, i know i'm going to die and rot or turn into ashes, but no, doesn't bother me really. You've got one life and as long as you live it well, it's worth it, if you don't, too bad that all there is. I think I took it for granted that that's all you get, which is why heaven doesn't apeal to me maybe?

Answer 9

i think most people rather they admit it just label them selves as but inside they all wonder about those things and they all fear mortality right up until the end unless thats what there waiting for

Answer 10

I cannot gain the comfort of prayer , while the comfort of prayer has a very real effect - it is still subjective self beguilement - if i personally ever get low ( which is almost unheard of) I could use mantras ( positive affirmations ) to reinvigorate my self worth and motivate myself - thus I have lost nothing  

However my intellect will modify my society and environment within a quality framework . I will be functioning at the socio-intellectual level which is where human moral evolution is presently at. While the Christians are on their knees I'll be one of the ones answering their prayers as this world gets better under the guidance of those who prioritise as I have learned to.

Answer 11

i've had a horrible flu a time or two and i get religious when i think i'm dying. please god, i'm sorry for all the bad things, get me through and i'll never drink this much again ;^) i do drink that much again though. oh well. generally i don't think about god, it doesn't make me feel anyway. Imagine how you feel not having a purple dragon sneaking around behind you right now, that's how i feel about god. or how do you feel having no zues at all. does it bother you Thor is not there to protect you.

Answer 12

I'm agnostic. Heaven, or Christianity for that matter, doesn't make sense to me. I cannot believe what I don't believe. But what I do believe is no one knows what happens after death. I would like that it's a place where I see my family who have passed and generally have a good time but I and everyone else won't know until we die. To answer your question, it feels normal. I don't know any different. I have my own moral code and live up to my own standards and I believe I'm responsible for myself. I'm not saying there is no God because I don't know.. Its my opinion that no one else knows either. Intended with respect

Answer 13

It feels for us having no god at all much the same way it feels for a xtian to have no Zeus, Vishnu, Osiris, or Mithra at all.

How an atheist feels about death will vary widely by the individual.  For some, the afterlife is a tempting allure as a way to dodge death, even if it's something they think extremely unlikely to exist.  But atheists are more concerned with what can actually be shown to exist; any belief in any form of afterlife is, when it comes down to it, pure unfounded speculation and wishful thinking.

Other atheists are more accepting of the naturalness of death, and see the notion of an afterlife as a foolish distraction that keeps people from really accepting the finiteness of their lives and hence of fully valuing their lives.  I would probably count myself among this group, though as a transhumanist I see death more as an engineering problem to be solved.  ("Intelligent" designer?  Hardly!)

Science has pretty much shown that everything that makes you, "you" is contained inside your physical brain.  Minutes after you die, your neurons shrivel up and the interconnections between them is severed, permanently destroying any information that's there--including all your memories, your personality, experiences, tastes, worldviews, beliefs, quirks, etc.  Thus, there's really not any room for a soul, and if there was it would be a blank slate with no identity and no ability to have any thought processes.

So make the most of the life you're living now, both quantity and quality.  Because as far as we can tell, this really is all you get.

Answer 14

for atheists , they will in their own world they will enjoying with  money  and other pleasures..[see bad]

Answer 15

great! -  I never give it a thought until a deist prompts me to think on my position - I have faced death many times in my life - more than most - have had 3 nde's - never attributed any of it to god or heaven never thought about anything just enjoyed the ride.

I really think if you believe in god you cannot conceive of the 'not believing' - as a disinterested  absence as you see everything  through the eyes of a believer.  

I am 60 now and hte oldest member of my family - I am due to go next and no I really don't think about it - just preparing for the mystery and my dying process.

I think it must be hard for someone to understand how something so fundamentally important to them can be totally  meaningless   to another.

I think as humans we tend to look inside ourselves in order to try  understand these others we share the planet with.

I find it really hard to understand other people as I am multiple dxed with D.I.D and living in a society of singtiples - I have never met another multiple face to face so I dont understand the singtiple defence system. My partner is often having to try to explain how it all works but its so hard to understand from my psychological patterning - we would almost seem to be a different species.

Answer 16

Ah, it's a very good question... I think everyone's idea of "god" is quite different, and religion is the only thing that is able to hold a single view together for anyone, and work it into a tangible system. Even then, everyone's idea of god is different.

Heres what I think... I don't think we should separate ourselves from God/the Universe, whatever you choose to call it. We are here and we have these emotions and feelings of God so we know they exist.

Everyone has a god, for some it is spiritual, some it is egotistical, some it is material. But all gods are true in form and reason. We just have to realize we are part of god ourselves.

At the moment of death, I wish we could realize the oneness that makes up everything from us to stars to rocks, to everything else in existence, and to realize that god is all of these things, and that we are just returning to that original organic form.

Pick up any rock on the side of the road- that rock may one day be part of a human, or vice versa. We are all the same matter-stuff of existence, of the universe, of God.

I think there is total peace in that

Answer 17

Atheism, as an explicit position, can be either the affirmation of the nonexistence of gods, or the rejection of theism. It is also defined more broadly as synonymous with any form of nontheism, including the simple absence of belief in deities.

Many self-described atheists are skeptical of all supernatural beings and cite a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Others argue for atheism on philosophical, social or historical grounds. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere; and some religions, such as Jainism and Theravada Buddhism, do not require belief in a personal god.

So therefore, just because they don't believe in a specific all powerful god or gods doesn't mean that they don't believe that they won't go somewhere after death.

And in the end isn't it enough to just live a good life to the fullest and be a good person. What does religion truly matter in the end if your a good person. Who's to say that if I don't believe in god (which consequently I do) that I won't go to a christen heaven. If I'm a good person shouldn't God let me into his heaven?