How do athiests cope with death?

There is no logical reason for non-believers to fear death. Epicurus is the first I know of to express this sentiment with, where I am, death is not, where death is, I am not. To me death is non-existence. There is no pleasure but also no pain. This is one of the reasons I support euthanasia. When life becomes unbearable and there is no hope of ever recovering it should be our right to end our suffering.

But fear death we do. Without the survival instinct our race would have become extinct. Fear of death is an instinct rather than a logical fear.

Most people would like to live longer including myself. My life is generally pleasurable. Note the the law and supply and demand observes that the value of something is related to its supply. If we in fact did live forever life would have no value. I would not want to live forever even if it were possible. I’ve found myself bored when the weather is bad and nothing good is on TV. Imagine if I had already lived a billion years and had already seen or done everything millions of times. Existence would be pretty pointless at this point.

When someone dies we mainly grieve our loss not theirs. This is the same for believers and nonbelievers. Believing that they are in a better place and that we will see them again some day may be a little comforting but I don’t think there is that much difference in the way people with different worldviews grieve.

Well, you eventually just come to accept that death is the final and permanent end of life. I was a pall bearer within the last month for my grandfather whom I dearly loved. I attended a pre-funeral ritual that included praying the Rosary, a funeral mass, prayers at two meals, and final prayers at the gravesite to include a rather bizarre holy water ritual.

The way I see it is, what else can people do? It hurts to lose someone you love, and the more rituals you can invent to deny that they are really gone, the better most people will feel about it. In the meantime, I’m all alone in my mind thinking “no, he’s not in a better place. He’s in a f*ing coffin beginning to rot, and he no longer exists in any meaningful sense”.

But there is an upshot. At least as an atheist, to the degree I have doubts, those doubts bring hope rather than despair. The doubts that believers hold bring panic and fear.

well its a hard thing to cope with. atleast we dont say stupid stuff like “he’ s in a better place now”

I’m an atheist, and while I can’t speak for all people who share my lack of faith, I can speak from personal experience.

I lost two close friends in recent years, both were very young. Being an atheist doesn’t take away the hurt, the anger that they left you, the emptiness you feel without them. Often I found myself wishing there was an afterlife, so I could see or talk to them, but rationally, I knew that wasn’t the case. Sure, I still mourned for them, but I accepted eventually they were gone- same as anyone would, be they of faith or not.

Some people use the idea of God and an afterlife as a coping mechanism- the idea of someone leaving them is too hard for them to cope with, so they like to think of a nice place the person they care about has gone, where they are happy, not in pain, and if we’re good, we can see them again when we die too. I mean, who wouldn’t like to believe in that? It’d be pretty sweet! It’s normal to fear the idea that life can just be snuffed out, and we just cease to exist. The difference is, as much as we might fear it, Atheists accept it, and don’t need a sugar-coated story to swallow that idea.

just believe that they played their role in life. now they can join the ecosystem and play another role. hope that helps.

I’m an atheist and with any deaths, close, personal, on not so, I mourn as most would. many of my relatives are, however religious, and thus I must acknowledge their traditions.

I see no plausible way for afterlife to exist, and thus see anothers passing as a inevitable natural occurrence. just try to think it will happen to everyone, and that avoiding it is impossible. we, as living creatures, must accept the inevitable, accept our mortality

Well first off I’m sorry to hear about your loss.

Secondly I’m an Athiest. And coping with death is hard no matter if you have something to turn to or don’t.

But I just tell me self over and over again how death is only natural, and even if the death was by un-natural causes, I just think that everyone has a time to go. I believe in fate and destiny in a way, I think that things happen only because they are meant to. And maybe just maybe the person really is in a better place, sometimes nothingness is better then any pain or whatever they may have been dealing with…

I don’t know if I’m explaining my point of view very well at all, it’s hard for me to describe, but I hope you get it. =]

Better than believers.