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Question For Atheists
    #10607194 -

I've heard a lot of you say that religion is just a coping mechanism for death anxiety.  I'm curious as to whether or not you yourself experience death anxiety.  If so, how do you cope with it?  Or do you just lie awake in fear of death and lack any means of coping with it?


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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Silversoul]
    #10607198 -

Silversoul said:
  Or do you just lie awake in fear of death and lack any means of coping with it?


Not even gonna lie, that is what I do. In all seriousness, and I hate it.

I WANT to believe in God, but I can't. So honestly I lie awake in bed and think about my own death.

When I finally admitted to myself that I did not believe in god (10th grade) I cried myself to sleep for a month because I kept thinking "Well, there's nothing after this." And now when I see family die, or someone close to me die, I get really freaked out.

Like i said, I wish I believed in God, but i don't. And i really hope that i'm wrong.


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Edited by learningtofly (07/02/09 02:22 AM)

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Silversoul]
    #10607215 -

Are you saying that since we can't cope with death well, there is a God? :confused:


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Well I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them. --  Bob Dylan
fireworks_god said:
It's one thing to simply enjoy a style of life that one enjoys, but it's another thing altogether to refer to another person's choice as "wrong" or to rationalize their behavior as being pathological or resulting from some sort of inadequacy or failing so as to create a sense of superiority or separation as yet another projection of a personal fear or control issue.

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Poid]
    #10607222 -

no he's saying that since we think that religion is a product of death anxiety, what do you suggest as an alternative to cope with it (I think)


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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Poid]
    #10607224 -

Poid said:
Are you saying that since we can't cope with death well, there is a God? :confused:


Of course not.  I'm asking atheists what alternative coping mechanism they use in place of what they accuse of being a self-deceptive coping mechanism for death anxiety.  I'm not trying to challenge anyone or prove anything here.  I'm honestly curious to know.


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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Silversoul]
    #10607226 -

Read what I said. You already answered it.


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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Silversoul]
    #10607233 -

Silversoul said:
Poid said:
Are you saying that since we can't cope with death well, there is a God? :confused:


Of course not.  I'm asking atheists what alternative coping mechanism they use in place of what they accuse of being a self-deceptive coping mechanism for death anxiety.  I'm not trying to challenge anyone or prove anything here.  I'm honestly curious to know.


I guess I cope with death by thinking about it a lot, but I never come to any definite conclusion because neither I, nor anybody else who is alive definitely knows what death is like. This is the difference between theists and atheists; theists claim to know.


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Well I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them. --  Bob Dylan
fireworks_god said:
It's one thing to simply enjoy a style of life that one enjoys, but it's another thing altogether to refer to another person's choice as "wrong" or to rationalize their behavior as being pathological or resulting from some sort of inadequacy or failing so as to create a sense of superiority or separation as yet another projection of a personal fear or control issue.

Edited by Poid (07/02/09 02:39 AM)

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Poid]
    #10607257 -

I feel fairly certain there is no g/God, and as for death anxiety, it is often experienced in my mind-stream with varying degrees of awareness, in many manifestations.  I live with it - endure it - but am constantly seeking distractions from it.

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Silversoul]
    #10607376 -

Terror management theory

A smidge from some research I did a while ago on the topic...

A person’s biologically determined desire to live, along with the awareness of the inevitability of their death, leads potentially to paralysing fear which is, according to Terror Management Theory (TMT), managed through the dual buffering effects of cultural worldviews (CW) and self-esteem (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004). TMT has indicated that CW exerts their effect by way of a person’s early affective associations made between safety and meeting parental/care-giver standards along with cultural understandings and beliefs (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). Thus people who perceive themself as living up to the cultural standards feel a sense of safety and security. To this end, TMT defines self-esteem as a cultural construction that consists of a person’s perception that they are a valuable member of a meaningful universe (Greenberg et al., 1997).

TMT has suggested that, because self-esteem buffers an individual from existential anxiety brought on by mortality salience (MS), in the face of MS an individual will behave in a way to enhance their own self-esteem thereby enhancing their protection from anxiety (Greenberg et al., 2004)...


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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Silversoul]
    #10607681 -

Silversoul said:
I've heard a lot of you say that religion is just a coping mechanism for death anxiety.  I'm curious as to whether or not you yourself experience death anxiety.  If so, how do you cope with it?  Or do you just lie awake in fear of death and lack any means of coping with it?


I didn't know we needed a coping mechanism :shrug:

I'm tempted to suggest that the best treatment for death anxiety is concrete pills.


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I know... that just the smallest
                                                part of the world belongs to me
You know... I'm not a blind man
                                                    but truth is the hardest thing to see

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: zouden]
    #10607844 -

Quote:
If so, how do you cope with it?


Like any other human with intrinsic fears.
Coping strategies are obtained from a combination of environmental resources and internal dialogue like human reason and rationality.

For some this result is religion, for others it is the Shroomery.

To each their own.

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Re: Question For Atheists *DELETED* [Re: Arden]
    #10607873 -

Post deleted by Lakefingers

Reason for deletion: No reason.

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Lakefingers]
    #10607887 -

Lakefingers said:
I thoroughly relish those who recommend death meditation (I've
experimented with this too). Imagine your
flesh rots, you die, you pass away, your loved ones,
the world without you -- utter nonsense really, because
you cannot understand your death, because imagining it
you are excluding yourself from it, just as you do when
you imagine the world without you (e.g. imagine the
world after you're gone, you can't, the world is you,
without you there is no perspective for you to see
it). This is not to say that death meditation can't
have some results by for instance keeping one from
avoiding anxious thoughts related to death.



Try it on acid.

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Re: Question For Atheists *DELETED* [Re: blazenn]
    #10607897 -

Post deleted by Lakefingers

Reason for deletion: .

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Lakefingers]
    #10607906 -

Haha I'm just saying if you want to experience death without actually dying, acid can do that for ya. I had an acid trip where I died. Being forced by acid to confront death head on is pretty fucking intense. Ever since that one I honestly don't fear death anymore.

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: blazenn]
    #10607910 -

Although your experience may have been fucking intense, do you honestly think it can be representative of death? Cause how would you know you're not just making shit up?


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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Mufungo]
    #10607919 -

It's not that I went through death exactly how it would really be. It's that I truly believed I was going to die in that exact moment. I was put in the mindset of "I'm really dying, this is it, it's over..". At that point I accepted it, and was okay with the fact that I was about to die.

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Re: Question For Atheists *DELETED* [Re: blazenn]
    #10607922 -

Post deleted by Lakefingers

Reason for deletion: .

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Re: Question For Atheists [Re: Lakefingers]
    #10607936 -

Lakefingers said:
But you don't have to be okay with it, because you're never going to experience being dead.


Yeah, no shit. I didn't say I was okay with being dead, it's accepting the fact that you're going to die and not fearing it.

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Re: Question For Atheists *DELETED* [Re: blazenn]
    #10607943 -

Post deleted by Lakefingers

Reason for deletion: .

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