I think that the fear of death is what causes people to become religious.

[tradeunionsupporter]

I think that the fear of death is what causes people to become religious not the only cause but it is one of the causes. I think religious people need help or help themselves get over this fear. I don't need to believe in a afterlife or heaven to deal with death my heaven is right here on earth is this life. I want to make the World a Heaven on Earth a better World for future generations. I know Marxism doesn't accept God but could we at least accept Nature Mother Nature and the Laws of Nature over God. or gods thank you ?


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

Mark Twain

http://richarddawkins.net/quotes?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bauthor_eq%5D=Mark+Twain&commit=Search

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I think that is part of the reason why religion has maintained such an appeal but there are also many other factors that have become dogma: the misguided notion that religion makes good people and society, the "morals" associated with religion, and the supposed explanation for life and the universe.

[tradeunionsupporter]

I just think this life on earth is more important then some afterlife they we have no evidence even exists. Death is like a dreamless sleep sleeping with no dreams I have no fear in it it gives me more comfort then religion. I was no fearful of death when I was a Christian now that I am a Atheist I say Im going to try to live as long as possible as death a state like before birth or a dreamless sleep and or not remembering the dreams you had that is all does anyone agree ?

I am afraid of dying...I was never afraid of death until I reached my 30's.

I make a distinction between dying and death. I wouldn't say I'm afraid of dying, but it concerns me more than what comes after, because dying has the potential to be painful, prolonged, and so on. However, there's nothing to fear after death, I believe.
...please explain to me how you've avoided this fear [of death].
Two things I learned in this forum helped me tremendously.
One, after death is probably like before birth. Both states are similar: we have no working brains, no functioning central nervous systems, no senses, no memories, no personalities. Billions of years passed in the blink of an eye before our birth. We were blissfully unaware of the enormous passage of time. No pain. No suffering. No awareness whatsoever. The thought that after death is like before birth is oddly comforting to me.
Second, we practice death every night. During dreamless sleep. Again, we are unaware of our surroundings. Unaware of the passage of time. Sleep and before birth aren't such bad states. Neither is after death. Unless you believe you'll be roasting in he!l. :)

http://forums.about.com/ab-atheism/messages?lgnF=y&msg=29604.1

[tradeunionsupporter]

I think the fear of death is used by the Capitalists to promote Religion.

[tradeunionsupporter]

Marxism and Religion (http://www.revleft.com/marxism-religion-liberation-theology220701.htm)

Written by Alan Woods Sunday, 22 July 2001

We have received quite a few e-mails from our subscribers asking about the attitude of Marxists to religion, relating not only to Marxism and Christianity, but also to Islam. For example, we have received several communications from sympathetic people who support liberation theology, in the Philippines. We are also in contact with groups who describe themselves as Islamic Marxists. This is clearly an interesting and important question, which deserves serious treatment. As an initial contribution, we are publishing an article by Alan Woods which is actually based on his replies to such letters.


Life after death?


The desire to live forever is at least as old as civilisation - probably still older. There is something in our being that resists the idea that "I" must some day cease to be. And indeed, to give up forever this wonderful world of sunshine and flowers, the wind in my face, the sound of the water, the company of my loved ones - to enter an endless realm of nothingness - is hard to take or even to comprehend. Thus, early on, humans have sought an imaginary communion with a non-material spirit world where - it is believed - a part of me will live on. This was indeed one of the most powerful and enduring messages of Christianity: "I can live after death"

http://www.marxist.com/marxism-religion-liberation-theology220701.htm

[Left Leanings]

Your post made me think about the novel, A Passage To India by E.M. Forster, and the film of the same name. Watch the clip below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3q0Rjtt2jM&feature=relmfu

Watch from 4.20. There is a conversation between Miss Quested and her companion, Mr Fielding, about how her elderly friend, Mrs Moore, believes in ghosts. It's remarked that the elderly tend to believe in ghosts, becasue they fear death. Miss Quested concludes that "of course, the dead don't live again". Mr Fielding replies: "I fear not".

Religious beliefs take root for many reasons. But the inability to cope with the finality of death is one of them.

Religion persists, despite improvements in education and advances in science, because its primary appeal is not to the intellect, and never has been. But to the emotions.

[NGNM85]

Fear of death is an important componant, however; there is much more to it than that. Religion also gives order and sense to the universe, even if it is ultimately false, it provides ethical sanction, it perpetuates customs and values, and it can provide a sense of community.

[Tenka]

Death is more of a concern when it happens to those individuals for whom you care. Death is, in fact, a terrible crime in itself against any sane person's moral sense, their sense of what is right and just. One contributing factor to belief in an afterlife is certainly that it serves as a coping mechanism under the stress of such crimes committed around us.

We should abolish Death; the circle of life and death is something for lower animals, it is anti-human. Pisses me off how New Atheists and the like tend to romanticise such a terrible thing just to spite the wishful metaphysics that attract people to religion.

edit:

I know Marxism doesn't accept God but could we at least accept Nature Mother Nature and the Laws of Nature over God.
FUCK MOTHER NATURE JUST LIKE GOD.

[Azraella]

I do not believe in an afterlife and I do not believe in reincarnation or anything else. All I know is that I am the summation of my deeds.

Cattle die, kinsmen die, I too will die. But I know of one thing that will never die, the reputation of each dead man.

[Kronsteen]

Some people don't so much join a religion as join a church. The church provides a support network, and also a focus for some socially progressive things like care of the homeless. The god thing is just a token ritual of praying occasionally.

Others go through a traumatic experience like losing offspring, and find that having an imaginary friend in the sky is a comfort for the months they need it.

A few people have intense mystical experiences, which they interpret as relating to the nearest convenient religion.

Some want a justification for their hatred of gays, jews, gypsies etc.

Religion serves a lot of psychological functions, not just the promise of an afterlife.

[Hexen]

If a afterlife did existed, I wouldn't expect it to be a 'eternal paradise' or 'eternal suffering' but more like how it's described or similar to Wraith: The Oblivion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wraith:_The_Oblivion).

[moulinrouge]

I know this tactic. By calling other people fearfull of something you position yourself as better, brave person.

I could say that people are atheist because they afraid to go to hell or that people are marxists because they are being afraid of being losers in society.

This can be applied to anything, and while there is some truth in it, it doesn't explain anything.

[Tenka]

I know this tactic. By calling other people fearfull of something you position yourself as better, brave person.

I could say that people are atheist because they afraid to go to hell
This seems like defensive babbling, sorry. I'm an atheist because self-delusion makes me ridiculous, and I don't want to be so ridiculous if it can be helped; and I still fear death.


or that people are marxists because they are being afraid of being losers in society.
Then they are being entirely counter-productive!

[Left Leanings]

I know this tactic. By calling other people fearfull of something you position yourself as better, brave person.

I could say that people are atheist because they afraid to go to hell or that people are marxists because they are being afraid of being losers in society.

This can be applied to anything, and while there is some truth in it, it doesn't explain anything.

Not sure about the tactic bit. I don't necessarily see myself as braver than anyone else, despite rejecting religion and notions of the afterlife.

Here's a thought for you. My great aunt was an atheist. And in her advancing years, she talked openly about dying. She said "she was frightened to death of it" (no pun intended. Those were her words).

As for people being atheists, cos they are scared of going to 'Hell'. Well, I don't think so. Cos anyone who believed in the existence of Hell would be pretty stupid to take an atheist stance to avoid going there. To believe in Hell would be to have a supernatural Christian belief. Surely such a person would be more likely to stick with religious belief, 'god' and such like, then seek refuge in atheism.

As for people being Marxists cos they are afraid of being 'losers in society'. Again, no. Cos capitalism creates winners and losers cos of the objective nature of class relationships, the difference between the workers and the bosses. The vast majority of workers will be just that their whole life: workers. Very few stand any realistic chance of becoming bourgeois.

And why blame yourself for your objective class position? I certainly don't. And I don't feel like a loser.

[tradeunionsupporter]

Q: What do you think happens to you when you die?

A: Just in case there are any misconceptions about this, most serious atheists don't believe in reincarnation or spirits any more than we believe in hell. What defines "you" is what you think and feel, and how you interact with the universe. When this stops happening, you're not you anymore. So you simply stop existing.

If this idea scares you, think about all the millions of years that passed before you were born. Do you remember it? Was that scary? Interestingly enough, the fate that Christians find so inconceivable -- complete nonexistence -- is regarded by Buddhists as the best possible outcome for your life ("Nirvana").

Some people take this a step further and argue this way: "The first law of thermodynamics says that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. Since life is a form of energy, it must go somewhere." We don't see life as a self-contained form of energy. It's more of a process that matter and energy goes through.
Some people find this idea disturbing. They really want to be around forever. We all would. But realizing that you won't be around forever makes this life seem more valuable in a way. Since you only get one shot, it's important to do the best you can to be happy and make others happy before you're done.

http://www.atheist-community.org/faq/

[Zealot]

Yes, this is partly true. A common feature of many religions is the insistence on some sort of way to transcend the poverty of human life, whether this is through Nirvana or a belief in life after death. Sometimes we don't even think about it but, when we do, we come to the realisation that some day our life will come to an end and we will witness the same of our loved ones throughout our lives. This is often a thought that we have trouble with fully accepting and so an afterlife (or an eternal life) is a very consoling concept. However, for some the idea of escaping life, or escaping the evils of reincarnation, is the goal but it essentially provides the same thing: comfort.

I wouldn't say that death is the cause of religious conversions; some people are literally convinced that a god exists and, before the dawn of modern science, this was quite easy to accept.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

That's incredibly simplistic view of religion. I personally am incredibly superstitious but I also don't give a fuck and am down with Satan.

Death is an illusion, clinically speaking.

[The Young Pioneer]

I believe in God...but...

That said, I'm not afraid of death. My mom likes to say, "You only ever have to do two things in life: Die, and pay taxes." As a good revolutionary, I only acknowledge the first as a sincerely inevitable thing (the man does not have me chained! *defiant fist*); and death, since we all do it, just like eating, pooping, breathing...it's natural and normal and who's ever been afraid of anything so unfascinating as routine procedure? Now eternal life? THAT shit is scary. So I can't say eternal existence was the promise that drew me towards religion so much as the sense of belonging and the idea that faith can be used to help you realise the good things in your life you might otherwise take for granted...something many can do without religion, I realise, but for me, it works.

'Sides, I'm ready to get rid of my body. It's a lazy sack of shit. :D

[Tenka]

Death is an illusion, clinically speaking.

Oxygen goes undelivered, the brain ceases to function, decomposition begins (unless some gross preventative measures for that latter are taken)... how is this an illusion? The death of an individual human being is a pretty material, non-illusory event.
Clinically speaking, an illusion, you must mean when circulation is restored before brain death can occur, right? But temporary clinical death is not what we're talking about.

Lighthearted attitudes towards death and all sorts of other horrors of nature are depressing as the things themselves.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Oxygen goes undelivered, the brain ceases to function, decomposition begins (unless some gross preventative measures for that latter are taken)... how is this an illusion? The death of an individual human being is a pretty material, non-illusory event.
Clinically speaking, an illusion, you must mean when circulation is restored before brain death can occur, right? But temporary clinical death is not what we're talking about.

Lighthearted attitudes towards death and all sorts of other horrors of nature are depressing as the things themselves.

Actually, it's really not that simple. Yes, while it is true that the organs shut down, they cease, and so on however if you research cases of people being revived a multiple hours after clinical death it becomes less concrete and final. This is mainly due, admittedly, to specific conditions such as hypothermia. If frozen the cellular decomposition slows down immensely if at all and thus the patient can be revived with only partial, little or no damage done. It appears to me that it's only a certainty when cellular decomposition occurs or if something horrific happens like you were in the middle of a bombing raid, for example. I would also point out cases in which patients have what's called the Lazarus syndrome.

When I said death is an illusion it's because it is in my belief that is what it's becoming in terms of progresses made in the medical fields going along Transhumanist lines. But you're right that, that's not what is really being discussed. I just don't inherently see it as being so cut and dry or certain. I do recognize your points though.

[Goblin]

Im an atheist and i have never been afraid of death. As a matter of fact, im kinda looking forward too it. An eternal sleep where your all by your self. No one bothering you.

[Tenka]

When I said death is an illusion it's because it is in my belief that is what it's becoming in terms of progresses made in the medical fields going along Transhumanist lines.

I understand now. Though there's nothing Trans-humanist about conquering death in this way; it would rather distinguish us as humans, and set us farther apart from the other mammals -- but we'd still be humans!
Even if we had robot bodies, we'd still essentially be human, but maybe Trans-biological... but this is tangential. :) (As well, I am not well-read on the subject of transhumanism, and generally assume it to either be a misnomer or a metaphysical sort of technology fetishism.)