Should Atheists Fear Death

This is a video response to a PM from Skavar4000, who asked if I would comment on the end of life. Tough subject.

I wrote him this letter, which I'll read to you as my video.


I admit I have not dealt with end of life issues at any length. I'm not sure I can. As I approach my own end, I do think about it, but the only thing I am sure of is that I won't go groveling to any god saying, "Just kidding, God. Me 'n' you, right?"

I have had at least a couple of jerks here on YouTube remind me in a supercilious way that I am not long for this world. One (who I just blocked) sent me a PM saying "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, Jesus is coming. The bad news is Jesus is coming. Whether it's good or bad news depends on whether you're standing or kneeling." That's a paraphrase, of course. He is not the only one to point out that I am old and should be looking to Jee-zus before it's too late.

One person I have looked to for "end of my own days" inspiration is Robert G. Ingersoll, who said, "So far as I am concerned I am immortal; that is to say, I can't recollect when I did not exist, and there will never be a time when I will remember that I do not exist." That quote has been a big help to me.

No person in my lifetime has ever come back from the dead to say that there is an afterlife or a heaven or a hell. The only ones said to have been resurrected from the dead (excluding people whose hearts have stopped and received an electric shock) are hearsay accounts from the Bible and other ancient screeds. Lacking evidence, there is absolutely no reason to believe that any living creature survives the death of its body and brain. Period.

I had all that religious mumbo-jumbo drilled into my head from earliest memory, so it naturally assumed a place in my subconscious. That little pang I get occasionally comes from that early immersion in religion. But it has with me the status of superstition, and I have mentally grown past it. It has the same place (and the same stature) as avoiding ladders and throwing spilled salt over my left shoulder into the devil's eye. It's silly, and belongs to the childhood of mankind. Adult minds should be able to shunt it to the back and out of sight. And they could, if they didn't go weekly (and weakly) to a placed where another person, as ignorant as they, reinforces the superstition by repeating the old lies in solemn surroundings and to the singing of hymns.

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[MinisterAilingTongue]

Is it easier to believe in god if you are physically healthy? I am NOT physically healthy against my will. I can't jog or even lift much weights for fear of killing myself. What do you folks think? When I was healthy, I never even thought about god. Nothing could make me sad or pessimistic. You always hear about how health problems and facing mortality makes some people find god--for me it has only done the opposite. I could never force myself to believe something from threats or inducements.

[Largo64]

@MinisterAilingTongue I agree with you. I'm not particularly well. I joke that whatever doesn't hurt doesn't work, but I have type 2 diabetes, and I've had one heart attack. Another heart attack could easily (and I hope quickly) do me in. I don't relish the idea of death, but I know it comes to one and all, and I refuse to worry about it. No god enters into it. I will simply cease to be. That's okay.

[deanrps]

ok 1 thing I'm 43 I think about it all the time being a recovered addict and having panic disorder on top I have lived my life&1/2 of someelses I have ween unexplained when i overdosed ppl can say hallucination but a yellow light shined throw the wall,it was heroin &xanax I followed it to my room where i sat in a chair instead of lying on the couch my beliefe has been faith& answered prayers I don't claim to know everything but I'm researching Maya,Hopi egyptian,Greek mythology they connect

[paraplegicgiraffe]

@hamberg42 Atheists don't base their disbelief in gods on a belief in evolution. Rather, they base their disbelief in the fact that no religion has any proof whatsoever in real life (not in the bible, torah, or whatever you believe in). But think of it this way: You don't believe in Zeus. You don't believe in Odin. You don't believe in Ra. You probably don't believe in Shiva. You don't believe in Aries or Osiris. You don't believe in fairies. Why don't you believe in them? Are you brainwashed?

[paraplegicgiraffe]

@hamberg42 But the entire basis for your argument against evolution is that atheists blindly accept evolution as a fact, therefore making them blind believers. I have heard some theists that believe in creation call them "evolutionists." The fact of the matter is that it's part of a scientific inquiry. A scientist's understanding of science changes as he gains knowledge and becomes less ignorant. But creationists base all of their beliefs on ONE book, and never change their minds.

[paraplegicgiraffe]

@hamberg42 Regarding it being a metaphor, if you believe this, I would be very interested in how you assume that the facts about the creation story that are not supported by factual science do not negate the creation story altogether. If you think that light before sun and humans out of dust is a metaphor or something along those lines, not to be taken literally, then who's to say that the entire creation story should not be taken literally? Couldn't it all be an invention of man?

[paraplegicgiraffe]

@hamberg42 You may pass these words of the creation story as either a metaphor or a miracle. I will address both. Regarding miracles, miracles are the excuse your mind invents when it doesn't understand something Like a magic trick. All religions have one thing in common- they all lived in times where they were ignorant of how the universe works. I mean, they were all invented before the discovery of gravity! But people always want to explain everything, so they invent magic, miracles, and Gods.

[paraplegicgiraffe]

@hamberg42 But creation as it was told in the bible has been disproved. We know that it is impossible to create light without a source of energy, namely the sun. But God is said to have created light before the sun, before the heavens. God is said to have created a human out of dust, but people aren't made out of dust. God is said to have created plants before he created the sun. Every organic matter would die. But how could the ancient humans have known these things without science?

[paraplegicgiraffe]

@hamberg42 Matter isn't light, light isn't matter.

But there's something more important about your last statement. You brought up the subject of evolution. Many believers in the creation story claim that accepting evolution is a belief, just like the belief in God and creation But the difference is that our understanding of science changes over time, and if evolution were to be disproved later on, a rational thinker would no longer accept it. Therefore it can't be compared to belief.

[hamberg42]

@cablepanos

"Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed" - Because it is fundamentally light dumbass.

Evolution is not science. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what the hell science actually is. derp.

"put a bullet through your brain and tell me what you think" - WTF is wrong with you faggot?