How afraid are YOU of dying? Researchers say atheists and the most religious are least scared

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ ^ | 03/25/2017 | Stacy Liberatore

[heterosupremacist]

Comments? Video at link (2:57)

[Kickass Conservative]

I used to say that there is no such thing as an Atheist on a crashing Airplane.

That offended an Atheist FReeper so I changed it.

There is no such thing as an Agnostic on a crashing Airplane.

[redfreedom]

Feb 8th of this year I was near death. The attending nurse even said she thought I was going. I figured I was dying, and I was not even close to being afraid. My thoughts were how I’d be leaving my wife, that I only wish I could have done more for her.

I’ve had other experiences too, Vietnam is an example.

However, a slow agonizing long term death process such as lung cancer does cause me to worry. It would be like a convict on death row not really knowing what day it will come.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Researchers say atheists and the most religious are least scared***

let the Grim Reaper give them a close shave and haircut with his scythe. Then ask them again.

[A_perfect_lady]

A merciful god indeed. So merciful that he’ll subject you to the worst tortures imaginable for all eternity for the ‘crime’ of not believing in him. Even if I did, why would I worship such a spiteful entity?

It makes no sense, but a lot of people believe in all this.

[A_perfect_lady]

I'm an atheist and I had an experience that, for at least a few seconds, made me certain I was going to die. I was zipping down the highway on my way to work last July. Nice morning, about 7:30am, Los Angeles freeway, plenty of traffic. It was a Wednesday. Suddenly I and another car both tried to change lanes at the same time and nearly collided. I saw him first and swerved. My car started fishtailing wildly, and then went into a full 360 spin (stalled at some point and the power steering locked up) and I just spun down the highway at 60mph until I finally came to a halt.

Everything really did go slow motion for a moment. Or rather, it was like a tiny black-out, following by slo-mo, followed by another black-out (maybe I was blinking? I don't know) and then my car came to a rest in the middle of the highway. Every split second during this process I expected to feel the impact of another car, and my mind was utterly convinced that these were my last seconds. Even when my car finally stopped moving, I sat there for a few seconds expecting an on-coming car, unable to stop, to plow into me and finish it all.

When my mind finally came back to normal, I saw every car behind me had managed to come to a halt, some only about 15 feet away, and they were all staring at me. I put my car in park, started it again, waved kind of dazedly at the people behind me (once nice lady with wide eyes waved back) and I pulled away, realizing "I'm not dead. No one hit anyone. It's okay!" As I drove away, I started laughing, mostly because I couldn't believe that just happened. Absolutely the most amazing few seconds of my life. I really thought I was dead.

Here's the thing: nothing having to do with religion entered my mind at all. I didn't think about if there was a God, I didn't pray, I didn't have any thoughts of that nature. All I thought was "this is it... this is it... this is... not it? Wow... incredible." But no angels, devils, gods, or anything of that nature even occurred to me. Those of us who are atheists are atheists because we are atheists. It's just not there.

[dhs12345]

Hey, if I were an atheist, I’d party like there was no tomorrow... because there won’t be a tomorrow. Absolutely no constraints. Laws be damned too.

You live, die and then you are a compost heap. Actually some of us are compost heaps before we die but that is beside the point.

Anyway, because I believe in a greater purpose than running around like a bunch of slobbering grunting knuckle dragging animals, I have hope.

[redcatcherb412]

Doesn’t mean praying all the time.
On a lighter note for people who believe there are no atheists in foxholes, common terms heard during a firefight

Oh my God that was close ?
Jesus Christ where is our air support ?
My Lord did you see that ?

Just to mention a few.

[Okieshooter]

My feelings match those of Mark Twain

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

[Bob434]

[[All one has to do is look at what the left is becoming, and one can see this very thing.]]

Yup they are practicing for hell

The lawless one is fortunately restrained for now- but not for long-

[[Being around continual rage is very draining.]]

Yup- Hell is not going to be a picnic- or party as some think- it’s going to be hell-

[Bob434]

[[ Will not the great mercy of God be revealed at some point in the distant future?]]

There are many who think that but no- the unsaved will still reject God, and their sins will still be going strong- and the effects of their sins will have already done their immediate damage, but also future damage as well- The argument for ‘limited punishment’ comes from the thought that sins are finite- Here is a similar question posed o nthe site listed beblow:

‘Taking the example of a serial rapist, lets say his crimes were so evil that he deserves to suffer for 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. That is still NOTHING compared to eternity. Simply put, you cannot do anything bad enough to deserve hell. And certainly nothing you could do in your pitiful life of a mere few decades that could justify it.’

Check out the following for a good discussion on this subject

http://christianthinktank.com/way2long.html

” If someone commits a rape, the damage to the victim MIGHT end at death, but what that statement does not take into account is the eternally different stream/ripples of events which flow from that rape.”

[Bob434]

there’s a whole book of future prophecy- have a ball reading it-

[tjd1454]

This is very interesting, but I question the idea of unbounded (eternal) consequences. Yes, all sin is extremely serious, and have far-ranging consequences. But are they eternal?

More to the point is the concept of the “fundamental option,” the basic orientation of the human heart, either for or against God. If someone has rejected God in their heart of hearts, the vast universe of time will not change that decision. What, then is their destiny? C.S. Lewis has some interesting musings on that in one of his books.

[tjd1454]

Pasquale addressed this. If there is even the possibility - however remote - that after death we would face God and the final judgment, we would be wise to prepare for that unimaginable moment.

[Okieshooter]

There are thousands of religions each with their own God. What if we choose the wrong one?

[A_perfect_lady]

Pascal was silly. You cannot force yourself to believe in something that makes no sense to you any more than you can force yourself to fall in love with someone you find boring, ugly, and foolish.

[A_perfect_lady]

My point was, the times I’ve believed I was in danger, I neither thought of nor called on any gods. As for people who do say things like “Oh my God, did you see that,” ... it doesn’t mean anything. I mean, if someone says “Oh sh*t, watch out,” do you look around to see if there is indeed feces on the ground, or expect them to go in their pants? If someone says, “Oh boy, here we go again,” do you think there is some little boy they have in mind? If they can’t get a task done and they finally say “F*** this,” do you expect at the next moment they are going to reach for their zipper and try to have sex with whatever it is they are doing?

[Okieshooter]

Of course anyone who claims to be a believer because of Pascal’s wager has doubts so is not really a believer.

[tjd1454]

There is only one God. That is self-evident. You will understand the terrible truth of that either in this world or in the world to come.

[tjd1454]

What “makes no sense” is the pretension that everything that exists, with its unimaginable complexity, is the product of nothing more than time + chance.

[Okieshooter]

So those though an accident of birth were born somewhere that they were not exposed to Christianity are destined to spend an eternally in hell?