Silversoul said:

Tibetan said:

Death anxiety is made up by atheists to try and explain religion.

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Not really.  But the fact that the earliest religions did not seem to be very concerned with an afterlife does seem to undermine their point about it being the origin of religion.  To the extent that early tribal religions were concerned with death, it was more about being afraid of angering their dead ancestors than worrying about their own death.

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zouden said:

Not necessarily; there's a difference between survival instinct and fear of death.

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To us... because we can comprehend the details.

Fear of death is just a human brain's interpretation of the natural survival instinct.

If you could give an animal instant human intelligence, I think he would admit to being "afraid" of dying, and that he'd do almost anything to live.

zouden said:

Yes, so fear of death is something that humans have because we're aware of our own mortality.

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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?

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zouden said:

As I said earlier, there's "survival instinct", which all animals have, and there's "lying awake at night anxious about your own mortality". I doubt animals do that, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

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Wait, for some reason I unconsciously ignored the emboldened sentences there; I'm on par with what you're saying here!