The Fear of Death

From what I gather, atheists for the most part do not fear death. It isn’t a core belief or standard of atheism (as all atheism entails is to not believe in theism), but it is an opinion held by many. We are biological beings, not spiritual entities with an eternal soul. We exist to be in this world, not in any other. Many atheists are content with this opinion. Instead, atheists hold a fear of dying. How it will happen. Death is a part of life, but often death is viewed as an unpleasant circumstance.

Theism, on the other hand, generally has their followers working towards the single goal of salvation. This salvation often occurs after death, at which point nothing can be proven or disproven on the subject. That seems very convenient. But this post isn’t about proving the afterlife wrong or right. I intend to look at what makes people believe such things. I don’t have any sources or research prepared to back this up. I’m sure a more well-known atheist has conveyed this in a book that I have yet to read.

Theism thrives on the concept of salvation. There is something wrong with people’s lives fundamentally, so religion is present to save people. People need to be saved by death. For most people, it seems that because they learn this concept at a young age by being indoctrinated into the same religion as their parents. As we know, young minds are very impressionable and are eager to learn. If we teach children this idea of salvation, it’s possible that it will stick with them for the rest of their lives. They will grow up scared of the world, scared of dying, scared of living freely, just because they are not sure of where they are going. Heaven, hell, or purgatory? Good afterlife, or bad afterlife? Awesome afterlife, or mediocre afterlife?

Humans do not need to be saved. They do not require any sort of salvation except what is wrought through their own efforts. So what is there to live for? Atheists are obviously hedonists who do not understand spiritual importance. Theists are obviously less vain, less proud, less influenced by the world than those hedonistic fools, so theists must be the better group. There is a very important difference between these two that should be apparent by now. Atheists live because they are alive, theists live for the afterlife. Everything dies, afterall. It’s what you believe in when you die that matters.

So why are theists so content with living for the afterlife? Using Christianity and a number of other religions as an example, surely it isn’t because they really look forward to singing God’s name in praise for the rest of eternity while in heaven with him. If this were the only pull for living a good life and being nice to people, not many people would buy into it. “There’s this guy in the sky, and he loves us, and if you love him and follow his teachings, he’ll ALLOW YOU to sing praises to him in heaven for the rest of eternity”. This isn’t a very convincing argument on its own. Not many would believe that. There has to be consequences. Thus the concept of hell is introduced.

Hell is a place where souls who commited evil deeds during their human lifetime are sent. Instead of a purification process (which is why purgatory is supposed to exist), hell is meant to eternally punish all those who did not follow God and his teachings. While Catholics believe in purgatory, a place of purification to prepare good but unworthy souls to enter the “kingdom of heaven”, most religions do not support this intermediate state. There is no grey area. Either you are worthy enough for paradise, or terrible enough for eternal punishment. Purgatory is to be feared, too, as pain is a terrible feeling for most. Fear of pain, punishment and possible rejection changes people. It changed them to think that they must follow the teachings of their religions fully in order to escape a terrible fate the moment death arrived.

What I’m getting at here is that people are motivated by fear. People are religious because of fear. People are calm and courteous in public because of fear. People don’t resist police all the time because of fear. People are have a pretty standard set of morals because of fear. Imagine. You’re surrounded by fear. Four walls. A box of fear that you can’t escape. The walls extend high into the sky. There’s no way you could climb that wall of fear. You just need to live your life according to a set of rules. That way, your body will be left, but your soul will be able to rise up and escape when you die. This is the obvious solution to most who accept what they are told and what is immediately around them. People who accept boundaries limit themselves. Dig under the box’s walls and break out into freedom. That wasn’t so hard, was it? But freedom is scary. It means you have to work harder. Think harder. Learn more.  And what if you dig down a little and you fall straight into hell, just as you feared? That’s enough to stop most people from exploring options, digging deeper, making their escape from the fear that binds them. But just think of all the things you’ll find on the other side. Other people have done it. It can’t be that bad, can it?

The story of the turtle and the hare fits into this very well. The hare decides that he will go half the distance to the finish line. When he is halfway, he goes half of the rest of the distance to three-fourths of the way to the finish line. He continues to divide his the remaining distance by half. The turtle, however, goes at a slow and steady speed. A deliberate pace to pass the finish line. No matter how fast or how many times the hare divides the remaining distance in half, he will never pass the finish line. The turtle, on the other hand, has his sights past the finish line. Even at his slow speed, he will pass the hare and win the race… and then keep on going. Religion will never be able to cross the finish line. It will always be content running along between the starting line and the finishing line. Atheism and evolutionary theory has been developing slowly for a very long time, and has passed the finish line, yet keeps going on to discover new things.

Are you stuck in a box of fear, or are you truly living your life?